HSBC - The World's Local Bank?

HSBC - whores of the financial services industry.

I was reading in the Metro free newspaper that HSBC drove a poor lad to suicide by constantly hounding him over his bank charges. Debt-ridden Geraint Banks-Wilkinson, a 20 year old university computer design student, was found hanging in his flat after HSBC launched an unwavering attack and cancelled his £1200 overdraft. He had already tried to pacify 'the world's local bank' by cashing in his student loan cheque, but to no avail. With debts mounting up and bills to pay, it was all too much for Geraint and he decided he couldn't face the grim reality of life anymore. A very sad story. A tragedy that HSBC, who waste millions of pounds on pointless frivolities every single day, didn't have the heart to work out a payment plan with anxious Geraint.

In another case highlighted in the article Aaron Robinson, 24, of Balham, South London, said he was targeted by HSBC after completing his degree. According to Aaron HSBC would ring him every 2 hours "demanding I pay my £2,000 student overdraft off in full or face serious repercussions." To add to his worries "they (HSBC) then rang my parents from 6.30am to as late as 10pm." This is a trick befitting a tin-pot communist dictatorship - trying to take your pound of flesh from a grown man's parents when you don't succeed at extracting it from him. An HSBC spokesman tried to defend their scaremongering tactics by saying "I don't see multiple calls as badgering people. It's trying to get a message to someone in financial difficulty." How out of touch 'the world's local bank' seems to be with reality.

Fortunately I don't bank with HSBC myself, but a straw poll of HSBC customers I work with gives a very negative impression of their banking services. Customer number 1 has banked with HSBC for the last 6 years. He recently lost his HSBC credit card, rang them to report the loss and had the card cancelled. It transpired that the card had been used fraudulently in the hour or so between it being lost and reported. HSBC tried to inflict the fraudulent charges on my friend and it took about 10 phone calls and several weeks of effort before HSBC credited his account. Customer number 2 is a Portuguese national - where better for him to bank than 'the world's local bank'? After about 3 months they told him they "no longer wish to provide you with banking services". That was it, their final word, a condecending snooty letter with no word of explanation. Twats.

So if you need a bank account, don't go to HSBC. They are the whores of the industry.