HSBC - falling apart?
Discussion
been to our branch today to open an account for our little one.
We're told to stand outside in the rain, with a 4month old, for an indeterminate amount of time between the hours of 10 till 4 and they would get round to it.
Nice.
Does anyone know if the likes of Halifax or Barclay's are better?
We're told to stand outside in the rain, with a 4month old, for an indeterminate amount of time between the hours of 10 till 4 and they would get round to it.
Nice.
Does anyone know if the likes of Halifax or Barclay's are better?
Otispunkmeyer said:
been to our branch today to open an account for our little one.
We're told to stand outside in the rain, with a 4month old, for an indeterminate amount of time between the hours of 10 till 4 and they would get round to it.
Nice.
Does anyone know if the likes of Halifax or Barclay's are better?
Why don't you do santander or one of the newer banks such as Starling etc. Can do it all online, just opened one with santander for my daughter. And I have a Starling account, would have done it with them but they've only just started doing them.We're told to stand outside in the rain, with a 4month old, for an indeterminate amount of time between the hours of 10 till 4 and they would get round to it.
Nice.
Does anyone know if the likes of Halifax or Barclay's are better?
RonaldMcDonaldAteMyCat said:
Deposit your money anywhere but vith HSBC, achtung!
HSBC are bent. I'll regale you with a little story. Back around January 2018 we had a phone call at work from a chap in Germany asking if we had a particular item for sale which was on our website. After a little bit of investigating, we did have one but it wasn't for sale and was something we used as part of the business. Anyway, the nice gentleman from Germany fessed up that he was actually phoning to give us the heads-up that our website had been cloned and that someone was advertising loads of gear for sale, purportedly from us, all over Europe. They had registered a web domain using the company details with the correct company office and everything. It was hosted in Europe somewhere. The British company which was in a similar business to us and who'd they stolen the template of the website from said it had been used like that four or five times previously. We were getting letters and emails from all over Europe asking where TF all the product was. I believe that one guy sent them 11,000 Euros!They were asking people to send payments direct to the company account. The bank account was held at a branch of HSBC in London. Now, this is where it got interesting. I got extremely angry, as you would, imagine and spent a large part of a Saturday on the phone to HSBC. Finally I got through to manager who knew what TF was going on. It turned out (and I'm not sure he should have told me this) that if you make an appointment at a branch of HSBC in relation to opening a new account their systems create the account with all of it's account numbers and suchlike. The account, however, does not become "active" until a manger actually authorises it once you have been in and they've done all the security and identity checks and suchlike. Unfortunately, it DOES actually become active, it just can't be seen by regular staff so no one can see it unless they know it's there. The money which was being paid into "our" account was apparently being transferred out and syphoned off elsewhere else in Europe.
So, yeah, HSBC = "dodgy as f
k". Don't open an account with them. nordboy said:
Otispunkmeyer said:
been to our branch today to open an account for our little one.
We're told to stand outside in the rain, with a 4month old, for an indeterminate amount of time between the hours of 10 till 4 and they would get round to it.
Nice.
Does anyone know if the likes of Halifax or Barclay's are better?
Why don't you do santander or one of the newer banks such as Starling etc. Can do it all online, just opened one with santander for my daughter. And I have a Starling account, would have done it with them but they've only just started doing them.We're told to stand outside in the rain, with a 4month old, for an indeterminate amount of time between the hours of 10 till 4 and they would get round to it.
Nice.
Does anyone know if the likes of Halifax or Barclay's are better?
Kent Border Kenny said:
It’s not possible to say whether I agree or not as you haven’t said which measure of money that you are referring to, and the answer depends on that, but also because you are implying to people in the business who are experts that you know better than them.
To be fair to ATM he is just enthusiastic about a discovery, which to you is old hat. In the world right now you have those with intimate knowledge of the banking system (you), those completely ignorant and those previously ignorant but curious/trying to understand (ATM), with the vast vast majority are in the completely ignorant camp!?The only measure of money they know is the pound balance they have or owe and what it does or doesn't buy them.
The setting of the 10% for larger banks will have been set with some thought? 100% would give the lending equals deposits the arguable natural/logical conclusion of the layman and 0% would allow infinite lending? What would be the consequence of changing to 5% an increase in lending it would seem? What about going to 20% any banks under that now would have to seriously put the brakes on lending over a transition period?
Where would we be now if those different percentages would have been used from the start, I find it all interesting if sometimes confusing but very few people are even curious enough to get as far as ATM.
Scootersp said:
The setting of the 10% for larger banks will have been set with some thought? 100% would give the lending equals deposits the arguable natural/logical conclusion of the layman and 0% would allow infinite lending? What would be the consequence of changing to 5% an increase in lending it would seem? What about going to 20% any banks under that now would have to seriously put the brakes on lending over a transition period?
Where would we be now if those different percentages would have been used from the start, I find it all interesting if sometimes confusing but very few people are even curious enough to get as far as ATM.
You’ll be glad to know both that it’s much more complicated than 10% - eg different figures apply to different types of asset - and it has varied quite a bit over time. Where would we be now if those different percentages would have been used from the start, I find it all interesting if sometimes confusing but very few people are even curious enough to get as far as ATM.
The regulators are always trying to achieve a balance here: if they make it too difficult for Banks to lend they stifle economic growth (as happened in the 1970s), but if they make it too easy, then when the economy turns down, Banks can fail (as happened in the Credit Crunch).
ATM said:
The magic money fairies?
Have a read of the full article from the BoE https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/...The BoE page you linked to previously is a bit of an overgeneralisation. You are right that the initial deposit is "made up" however when that is transferred to another institution it is from real reserves.
67Dino said:
You’ll be glad to know both that it’s much more complicated than 10% - eg different figures apply to different types of asset - and it has varied quite a bit over time.
The regulators are always trying to achieve a balance here: if they make it too difficult for Banks to lend they stifle economic growth (as happened in the 1970s), but if they make it too easy, then when the economy turns down, Banks can fail (as happened in the Credit Crunch).
From an outsider looking in, in the short/medium term the lower rates seem attractive to more people/are more tempting. I feel it would be harder to put the brakes on early as it means a reduction in the good times, so we tend to end up with crises, no one wants to be the spoil sport turning down the taps?The regulators are always trying to achieve a balance here: if they make it too difficult for Banks to lend they stifle economic growth (as happened in the 1970s), but if they make it too easy, then when the economy turns down, Banks can fail (as happened in the Credit Crunch).
I'm not pointing at the banking system/regulators more the human nature of it all.
KAgantua said:
Crikey whats happening at HSBC?, now no longer 24x7 support (Automated systems excepted) disputes team not picking up, main number sat on hold for 15 minutes now.
Are all banks like this these days? Pretty poor really, take it all the DR planning they perform was a waste of time?
Haha.Are all banks like this these days? Pretty poor really, take it all the DR planning they perform was a waste of time?
I'm trying to open an easy saver. Online. No, can't do that, only have a basic account. No idea what that means. Clearly broken.
Try use the automated helper. Circle jerking. Doesn't understand help opening an account.
Phone up. Emergencies only! Okaaay.
Local branches have closed near me.
When I've gone in they're helpful, but ultimately I think they know they'll probably be the next to close. It's pretty weird to see them dying a slow death.
I'm going to swap to an online only account (starling or whatever) at this rate, then use building societies (they're amazing in comparison, ring up and speak to a person who you actually know from in branch that you can see face to face) to 'hold' the money the online accounts utilise.
Contrast that to my local building society, phoned up, went in with ID later that day and had a new account in 15 mins.
How can building societies manage their high rates and amazing quality of service, while the mainstream banks can't? Who is gouging out all the profitability?
Both my local building societies almost know me by face in person or voice over the phone now (they still do checks obviously)... and pay good rates. I don't get why the banks are so crap given the only difference is a card to make payments?
bigandclever said:
lothianJim said:
There are many silver linings....
Yeah, I just need some suggestions on where to move to 
If you run a simple business, you could do worse.
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