After having similarly-frustrating things happen with my HSBC personal accounts over the years, I fully support this suggestion. They are awful. They take extreme steps (suspending accounts, rejecting payments, etc.) without contacting the customer; when you reach out to them, it's hours of being passed around before you reach the right person. If you reach a person at all.
He reported it and they suspended his account immediately while they investigated, which is fine. What wasn't fine was it took them well over a month to investigate, in the mean time all of his money was locked up tight and he was unable to access it, pay rent, buy lunch etc (we ended up shouting him for meals for a bit to help out until work organised an advance on his salary). In the end he really regretted 1) having all his money in a single account, and 2) ever having bothered telling HSBC about the transfer.
If you want to test, post your bank details here!
Having an automatic credit card payment is something slightly different though.
The article ends with him saying "I was wrong and I have been punished for my mistake" but this is just his schtick, it's factually incorrect.
I live in a small community and many local charities and non-profits post their bank info online, so that people may make donations by bank transfer or standing orders. Fraudsters periodically manage to trick the local banks into transferring money from the charity accounts and everyone freaks out, which is complete bullshit. The banks always restore the funds, and scold the charities for having this info online. I've experienced this myself at two different organisations. As a result charities become more reluctant to publicise their bank info and predictably, donations lessen.
It's important to keep perspective and hold the responsible party accountable, instead of trying to compensate for the bank's failings.
The best banks for consumers are the mid sized banks. They're big enough to have all the services, but not the bureaucracy.
It's easy to stamp in the wrong account number.
Tell me they check the name... Right?
The only protection that you have are the internal controls at the biller.
Two things I don't bargain hunt for anymore: Insurance, and Banks.
Closing a credit account could affect your score, but unless your checking account has a credit product attached (e.g. an overdraft protection line of credit) that gets reported to credit reporting agencies, it won't have any impact.
You can use https://annualcreditreport.com once per year to get a copy of your report from each of the three agencies (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion). If your HSBC account doesn't show up on any of those reports, you can be assured that closing it won't affect the scores generated from those reports.
Credit score is only one item they look at for large loan like a mortgage. Smaller loans like a car or credit cards are already easy to get.
I don't know how much impact it has, certainly less than late payments or accounts in collections, but it can have some effect.
Also, ratio of credit used to credit available is also a negative signal, which would increase when you close an account.
Those are somewhere between minor and middling factors. It's stupid we have to play the stupid credit score game, but a small decrease in interest rates can save you thousands when it comes to your mortgage.
I bet a lot of people are in a similar position. Not that I really use the account now, I have a far happier time in my Barclays account. I actually have a real hate for HSBC.
years ago, they were the only bank to open an account with my history from another country. all other us banks had the same bullshit "you won't even have a credit card with us until you have credit history in the us, even though we have branches in the country you have history".
then they were the only ones offering investments with no administration fee and with returns above the monopoly of .5 point under official inflation. they were actually 1 point above.
but yeah, every time I travel and forget to tell them before, my card get lots locked. and they claim they didn't call me before locking because it was sleep hours in my home timezone, in case I wasn't really traveling.
also driving in the us, every time I stop in a motel 6 and such, locked card.
I've never worked with a bank that tried so hard to keep me from my money.
I hailed from Europe to USA in 2003. Got SSN, went to first Bank of America branch and opened account with $100 initial deposit. No problems at all. Credit Card was tricky - yes many banks will tell you "bad credit is better than none", but after 60 days of direct wire from my employer to the Bank, they gave me secured $500 Amex. That was enough to show them for the next 60 days I used it and paid on time. Within 3 month from getting SSN and my first banking and working legally full time W2, I already got "you are preapproved for credit card" letters in my mailbox.
2 years later I opened Business Account with Bank of America and never had problems with them since then (online sales-related business). Not to say they are perfect, as BOA was known to claim they own properties (by mistake) and being stubborn in courts even if they knew they are wrong.
The only reason I'm resultant from switching to something smaller is the number of ATMs available; otherwise my choice would bt BB&T.
on most banks the offer letter will already give you a $500 credit.
Unless you are a drug cartel, of course.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/outrageous-hsbc-se...
> Breuer admitted that drug dealers would sometimes come to HSBC's Mexican branches and "deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows."
So lame:
> Though this was not stated explicitly, the government's rationale in not pursuing criminal prosecutions against the bank was apparently rooted in concerns that putting executives from a "systemically important institution" in jail for drug laundering would threaten the stability of the financial system.
and I doubt it will be hsbc nowadays since they become scapegoat on this issue a while ago.
I would also believe that drug cartels have somehow more convincing/effective ways ;) to get their money than sending an e-mail to the "Safeguarding" people.
I would add to the list, but I can't login to my account at the moment since I don't have my bespoke HSBC 2FA physical device (despite having a far-superior, non-polluting equivalent on my phone...)
If someone banks and does 2FA on the same phone, if the phone gets hacked (malicious app) you have a big problem on your hands.