Comments on: HSBC Direct Review

By: Karan

Karan — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 08:08:59 +0000

I’ve used HSBC and ING Vysya(ING in India) and personally speaking I would never recommend HSBC. Their service is poor. I tried to upgrade my account into a Power Vantage type and they took over a month, continuously telling me that it was under process and delays were from corporate HQ. Eventually I simply closed HSBC altogether. Btw their security dongle for netbanking also sucked… it was quite a pain to carry along

By: Lee

Lee — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:47:22 +0000

HSBC transfers to another bank take 3 to 4 days; that’s much longer than most. ING takes 2 days, E-Trade and Ally are quick – I have seen both do a transfer in one day.

By: M Patel

M Patel — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:05:56 +0000

I have account at ING Direct and HSBC Direct both. Whereas I am more than please with ING, HSBC has led me down on several occasions. On ING I could order my account status report for free whereas HSBC charges for it. I could get to ING support faster, HSBC let me wait for considerable amount of time (atleast 10 mins). I could manage my CDs easily on ING than HSBC. Though HSBC gives me little more in interest than ING, it compensates it by giving me bad service.

By: Kotze

Kotze — Fri, 15 May 2009 10:05:39 +0000

Run Run Run in the opposite direction from HSBC. Yes, they have moments of products working, but the inconsistency is astounding.

I have been left with no access to my internet banking and my card would not draw money (I also could not make internet payments) on 2 occasions both lasting a week (I’ve only had the account 8 months). Spending over £100 on international calls to them, I am told that the card is fine. Yet – it still does not work.

Basically, I cannot trust them – which is a pity as when the products work, they work well.

By: aaron

aaron — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 03:21:23 +0000

is hsbc direct only limit to us canada and taiwan country. I from philippines can i as well open an hsbc direct account? thnx

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 05:29:52 +0000

If you don’t worry too much about interest rate..then i do recommend ING. I have HSBC online for 2 years and i think i have called them most than any other banks.. the reason is.. they keep on blocking online access for god knows what reason .. (they call it for security reason)… oh yeh .. after calling them it will take x number of business days to get it back online ..its simply pain …. and of course BtoB transfer takes ages … 5-6 days to clear .. are you kidding me?

ING direct is much more faster and very easy ..best way to go is to have checking and savings account with ING ….that way transfer can be done instantly for easy access of money (ATM/Debit linked to checking account).. oh yeh ..not to mention ING checking has some great features .. its called electric orange .. good thing is .. For online Bill pay.. they don’t pay until you have that amount in your account .. .and also they don’t have OD fee policy .. what they do is .. charge nominal % of interest on OD amount if used which is pre determined by line of credit. isn’t that just great??? ING ROCKS.

By: willy

willy — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:43:54 +0000

hbsc sucks online service always problems

By: Jim

Jim — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:20:15 +0000

HSBC Direct’s rate just fell to 2.25% APY. Nearly every other online bank has a higher rate now.

By: Ron

Ron — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 06:24:49 +0000

I have a terrible experience with HSBC Direct in Taiwan also. I went online to apply for an online account and went to their branch to verify my identity with my id’s on the next day.
A few weeks later, I still couldn’t access my account. Later, I got an email said that they wanted to verify my id again. I was traveling and could not attend in person and that account got canceled. And I don’t understand why does this kind of account need a specialist to handle your account? Does this specialist need to sell you some products?

By: Belinda

Belinda — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:09:49 +0000

I opened an FNBO Direct savings account a few weeks ago, and I love it. This is my first online bank account, so I can’t compare its application process with HSBC’s, but I thought it was very simple and straightforward (it involved two trial deposits to my regular bank account for verification). I filled out the information online on a Thursday or Friday afternoon (forget which one), and by the following Tuesday everything was up and running, with the website showing my transferred amount. I’ve had one interest payment posted, and so far so good. Great interest rate, no fees, and easy to use web interface.

On another note, does anyone have advice about the best way to transfer money to someone else’s foreign bank account? Is an internet bank faster or cheaper? I just completed a wire transfer with my brick-and-mortar bank to send some money to an overseas relative, and my bank charged me $60 in addition to quoting me a suspiciously low exchange rate (hidden costs?). Since my relative’s account is with HSBC, I am considering opening an online savings account with them myself if that will speed up wire transfers or save me the fees.

By: Ann

Ann — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:20:50 +0000

So far I LOVE FNBO. I have already completed my login data and have transferred money from Credit Union. Still haven’t received temporary password from HSBC as of today and I had big bucks wired to them on 8/26. Called HSBC last night to verify receipt of transfer. Also just noticed HSBC has a ** rating as compared to FNBO’s **** rating. Can multiple accounts be opened at FNBO? I’m retired so I really need to be reassured I didn’t make a mistake going with HSBC. Any thoughts out there?

By: jim

jim — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:33:58 +0000

I liked them, just like any other high yield savings account…

http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/fnbo-direct-high-yield-savings-account-review.html

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:35:10 +0000

Has anyone looked at or know anything about FNBODirect? I just looked at the site and it is paying 3.50% APY. The sign up seems quicker than HSBC. Any feedback would be appreciated.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:25:53 +0000

Applied on Saturday, 8/16 and received email on 8/19 stating trial deposits sent to my bank. Checked my bank and trial deposits credited 8/18. Only my bank did the trial deposits as one entry. Had to call my bank to verify the two amounts to verify with HSBC. I set up an initial transfer of $25 when applying. Now have a $20K CD maturing 8/24 that I want to wire transfer funds to HSBC. Guess I’ll have to put proceeds in savings account while I wait so many days before being able to complete this with HSBC as I guess I now need to wait for more info from them to access account, i.e. temp password etc. Have they streamlined this any? I also will have to set up additional savings accounts but am concerned now with the procedure after reading above posts. Maybe I should also try a ING account opening? Any ideas out there?

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:09:51 +0000

HSBC treated me very poorly when I tried to open my account, I’d recommend ING Direct over HSBC. Here’s the facts, I applied on a Sunday and heard nothing from them so on Wednesday (3 business days) I called and asked why my account was not opened yet. The person said I had to talk to a woman named Tanya and that her hours were 8-5 EST. I called that extension and got some guy in fraud investigation that then put me into her voicemail, so I left a message. I called back today, Thursday, around 10am PST (1pm EST) and got the same guy. He put me into her voicemail……3 hours later I called again and got the same guy. He directed me to a guy named George whom proceeded to tell me that my account was being reviewed and that he was in the fraud department and that this will just take some time becuase Tanya needs to review my account and she left early today. I proceeded to tell the guy to cancel my account based on the fact that I had to call them 3 times and not one person could tell me why my account was being held up. I had $30K to deposit, not a large amount for a company like HSBC, but enough that I wanted customer service if I needed something. Meanwhile my friend set up an account with ING, his was set up within 2 days with no issues. Plain and simple, HSBC has the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I’d advise anyone to call both companies before setting up an account, see who answers the phone and who keeps you on hold and decide for yourself.