HSBC UK Reviews 27,011

I just wanted to warn anyone who is considering opening any kind of account with HSBC UK to seriously think twice, they give the worst customer service possible which in my case led to the loss of my dear mother, which my family will never forgive them for.

I am british and moved to Australia 10 years ago. I already had an HSBC bank account in the UK so decided that it would be a really good idea to open another account in Australia - I was welcomed with open arms as apparently they have a 'Global' account which means you can access either accounts from anywhere in the world, however, they fail to tell you that their policies and procedures are not 'Global', they are in fact very 'unGlobal' and I would even go so far to say that they are actually extremely antiquated and have not exactly moved into the 21st Century and insist on sending anything such as new paswords, etc by second class mail to Australia, which takes approximately 3 months to arrive if at all!!!!!! What a joke they are!!!!!

In January 2026, without any forewarning, they most unprofessionally closed all of my accounts and decided to send not only all the paperwork advising me of this, but also the cheque with my lives savings by second class post to Australia, which as you can imagine took months to arrive. I thought that I was in the extremely fortunate position of never having to deal with HSBC UK again!!!!!!! Oh how naive was I !!!!!!!

This happened at an incredibly inappropriate time as my mum had just been diagnosed with an illness which was deemed terminal unless treatment was administered immediately. We do not have the NHS in Australia, our Medicare system will only provide basic treatment, all other treatment is payable. In order to save my mother's life, I therefore had no option but to access my life savings ................... or so I thought!!!!!!!!!!

Never did I imagine in a thousand years that any bank would be unprofessional enough to completely close people's accounts without any forewarning whatsoever, especially given the fact that the majority of my past issues with HSBC UK was that whenever I required anything that needed to be sent to me by post in Australia was sent by 2nd class mail!!!!!!!! REPEATEDLY!!!!!!! So why exactly was all the information, including the cheque!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! sent to me by 2nd class mail?????????????????? I never actually did receive the cheque!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I then began the usual run of constant emails and phone calls (of which I now have recordings of!) asking for the cheque to be cancelled and for the funds to be sent to my UK Santander account! Not surprisingly, in line with the traditional high levels of poor customer service provided by HSBC UK, the majority of these emails and calls were ignored!!!!!! Every time I spoke to someone I was advised that the transfer had been made yet the funds never reached my account, during which time my mum became sicker and sicker!!!!!!

Eventually, the funds reached my UK Santander account on 27 February 2026, a whole month!!!!!! yes, you read correctly, ONE WHOLE MONTH SINCE THE INITIAL REQUEST!!!!!!!!!!! How exactly and why do these people get paid!!!!!!!!!!!! You disgust me!!!!!!!!!!! Good job that I repeatedly advised you that the money was required urgently to save my mum's life, or I would probably still be waiting for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sadly, it was too late for my mum in Australia, she very sadly passed away in the early hours of the same day that the payment was made to my UK Santander account!!!!! My life savings that would have saved her life, if I had been given the common courtesy to transfer 'my life savings' to wherever I so wished and not just had the accounts closed without my knowledge!!!!!! THEY ARE ABSOLUTE HEEVANS!

My family and I are wholly holding HSBC UK responsible for my mother's death - this was most certainly an act of murder!!!!

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY - THEY ARE PURE VERMIN!

Walked into the Bank, without an appointment, with a minor question on my business account, and I was seen quickly. The query was resolved and the member of staff suggested that they reviewed my personal account. I met a senior member of staff who looked at my personal account and made some good suggestions, that I took up, one being an upgrade of my savings account that was very good. And a card for when we travel abroad.

Carol (Solihull branch) was extremely helpful talking through the different savings/spending products available, including whilst overseas. I saved lots of time and research. Thank you for the great service !

HSBC provides good service to me especially ISA and credit card.

I recently visited the HSBC Cardiff Queen Street branch to upgrade my son’s bank account, and Matthew provided absolutely outstanding service. He was incredibly professional, polite, and welcoming throughout the entire process. Matthew took the time to understand my needs and made the account upgrade smooth and stress-free. It is rare to find such dedicated customer service these days. Thank you, Matthew, and the Cardiff team for a fantastic experience!

I attended Exeter High Street branch of HSBC to register a complaint into the transfer of an ISA into the HSBC 1 year fixed ISA product which has been a wholly unsatisfactory process, however in recording this complaint I was dealt with by the highly professional and understanding Simon Jenkins who spent time to explain the complaint process and assisted me in recording my complaint and ensured I was content with the complaint wording and subsequent follow up procedures. As usual dealing with Simon exemplified the excellent customer services usually demonstrated by HSBC employees and he is a credit to HSBC, it is such a shame that unfortunately HSBC's ISA transfer process is not of the same standard and failings in this process need to be addressed urgently.

I am a new customer in Nottingham who has opened a bank account. The system and paperwork were a bit complicated for me , but with the help of the professional HSBC team, especially Mrs. Khushbakht BUTT, I had a very good experience .

Thank you all

Very helpful , all advice and explanation very clear , very good mortgage offers Were so happy over all thanks to mortgage advisor Amanda

Great service, Really helpful staff thank you. Carlisle branch.

I visited HSBC Sheffield city branch and was assisted by Vikrant regarding a fraud check on my account. As English is not my first language, I had to call fraud with the help of vikrant. He was so patient and was a great translator from his colleague to us in English and made sure we understood everything. Our work was done finally with his help. He is a great asset to HSBC. Kudos to him and best wishes.

Opened and subscribed to a cash ISA and also requested a “transfer in” from a previous year cash ISA (from a building society). After waiting approximately 1 month to be constantly “fobbed off” from many “online chat” discussions I have now raised a formal complaint prior to referring the matter to the Financial Ombudsman. Similar frustration re online monthly saver - why can’t a deposit be sent (electronically) on a Saturday?

HSBC had a meeting to join premier banking and it did not disappoint lovely service the hsbc seems to have your interests at heart good information and guidance on tax look forward going forward with this banking team behind me.
Well done ⭐️

I had an excellent experience at HSBC Kilburn High Road thanks to Kara. She is always extremely professional , kind and helpful every time I visit the branch. Kara takes the time to explain everything clearly and always makes me feel welcomed and valued as a customer. Her friendly attitude , patience and outstanding customer service truly stand out. HSBC is very lucky to have someone as dedicated and supportive as Kara on their team. Thank you for your continuous help and professionalism.

Premier Onboarding

The appointment took nearly an hour over the phone.

Really long and at times a little frustrating as it takes a lot of simple questions which I felt could be answered on line

Some of the questions the bank should already know, like income and who employer is as they can see salary being paid every month

I have never experienced customer service as frustrating and exhausting as I have with HSBC over the past two months.

I opened an HSBC credit card with a 35-month 0% balance transfer offer and transferred an existing balance with the intention of paying it down gradually over the promotional period.

A few months later, I made ONE purchase on the card (£1,036 with Villa Plus) purely for the added consumer protection credit cards provide. Within days, I paid the purchase off in full because I specifically wanted to avoid interest charges.

HSBC then started charging me interest anyway.

After spending HOURS trying to resolve this, the issue still remains unresolved because multiple advisers simply could not understand the actual problem I was explaining.

I repeatedly explained that:

* I had already paid the purchase in full,
* the remaining balance was the original interest-free balance transfer,
* and HSBC appeared to have allocated my payment against the promotional balance rather than the purchase balance, resulting in ongoing interest.

Instead of engaging with that issue, adviser after adviser simply repeated scripted responses saying:
“You didn’t pay the full statement balance.”

I had online chats time out while agents disappeared mid-conversation. I spent around 90 minutes in branch with staff trying to explain the issue. A representative refunded the first set of charges and promised a callback the next day to prevent this happening again.

No one called.

The following month, HSBC charged me interest again.

I am a full-time working single mum to a toddler and genuinely do not have the time or energy to spend hours repeatedly explaining the same issue to different people who either don’t understand or won’t properly investigate it.

The most frustrating part is that HSBC never clearly explained that making a purchase on a balance transfer card — even if repaid almost immediately — could still trigger ongoing purchase interest unless the entire statement balance was cleared.

Had that been properly explained, I would never have used the card for purchases.

At this point I have raised a formal complaint and will escalate to the Financial Ombudsman if necessary.

Extremely disappointing experience from a major bank.

Vasanti Bhatti at the Coventry Cheylesmore branch was very helpful in getting my current account sorted, explained everything in detail and answered all my questions, thanks again for your help 👍

I had contacted Customer Service at HSBC via the Chat to check on the progress of my Current Account Application. After about 5 Minutes, the Customer Service Agent was cut off by a short technical hitch, when I had managed to log back onto my chat with the Advisor, he had ended our chat; I was connected to another Advisor, I had to explain myself again, shortly after, this Advisor told me that I had to contact the Customer Service Agents over the phone, I had explained to the Agent over the chat, that I already had chased them earlier this week,(only to be told that there were no Current Account Application for me), and was told by the Agent over the phone that my 2 profiles had to be merged and then my new Current Account will be displayed on my online banking. However, I am disappointed, as I had such high hopes of having a good financial relationship with HSBC, I have 2 savings accounts with HSBC with no way of transferring out should I need to make a withdrawal. Not pleased with how I have been pushed from pillar to post; also had tried to apply for a Advance Current Account but why is it so difficult to apply for one?? .. at this point, I see no point in pursuing my enquiries concerning my Current Account Application; and would appreciate it if HSBC could put back the points on my Credit File for the Hard Searches made for my Current Account Application in which I have not received any Account. Thank you.

We had Danielle Chadwick support us with our mortgage application. She was very patient and informative whilst also giving us lots of opportunities to ask questions. Danielle made the whole experience stress free as she was also flexible with appointments and was quick to answer any emails. Thank you so much! Positive experience 5/5.

Wow what a fantastic easy process.everything fully explained, so helpful Amanda Cambell was so knowledgeable, everything made simple an absolute credit to HSBC morgage I spoke to a couple prior from different lenders who weren't a scratch on this amazing level of service Thank you so much

Great and kind staff, app really easy to work
Happy with HSBC