Beware of this branch.
Awful customer service. I am moving to another country from Canada and I thought that HSBC was the natural choice. My wife and I thought we would take the opportunity to consolidate all our savings and investments and we would be all set no matter where we went in the world.
Don't believe HSBC's hype. First, it literally took 3 months to set up an overseas account. Nowadays, you can often do this in 20 minutes and $50. Moreover, internet banking and sites like xe.com let you deal with money transfers at a better rate than a bank like HSBC will ever give you. I wish I had researched this before.
I have had to return to the bank multiple times to fill out forms that were incorrectly filled out the first time. Once or twice is understandable, but I cannot think of a single thing that has worked out without multiple trips to the bank. Moreover, their customer services reps are horrible. I have a Premier associate who regularly forgets to do things -- even if I create a list of things I need done and email it to them. And these are not big tasks (create account, get cheques, etc.)
I signed up for a Premier account and the service has been abysmal. I am going back to TD (or any other bank) as soon as I can. My wife has seen what we've had to go through and she has decided not to use HSBC. I guess we will consolidate things at TD.
All in all, four months later and multiple things are still not set up... at other banks much of this is an afternoon's work... I don't think this is an HSBC issue so much as it is a childish and toxic culture at that branch. Perhaps it is for the best, the poor service has forced me to research and I have found better alternatives. I am leaving them ASAP. read more
