7 ms·

I was with hsbc for a year in the uk, I'd definitely not call it "generally very good" (ridiculous app and login infrastructure), but I have a sample size of on

• blibble 7y ago
  hsbc's app and website are the worst of any bank I've used nationwide and natwest have much better apps and websites
  • laurencerowe 7y ago
    HSBC's current online banking website is much clunkier than the version they had 10 years ago. That said, I can still do everything through it and compared to the US making payments is an absolute breeze.
  • cmsj 7y ago
    Kudos to natwest for adopting things like TouchID for authorising app logins, much earlier than anyone else. I still ditched them for Monzo though, mostly because natwest's anti-fraud system was reliably triggered by my mostly-online transactions, 3-4 times a year.
    • ubercow13 7y ago
      Yep, same for me with Nationwide - the antifraud measures made my account completely unusable years ago now. Think every card transaction being blocked and my card and account being locked multiple times a year with no communication to me.
• danpalmer 7y ago
  Yeah same. HSBC have struggled to improve their tech but they are improving now. They released a completely new app and got rid of that terrible login flow last year and apparently it's much better. You can still send a payment from HSBC, for free, instantly, to any other UK bank account. You can also just about do most things in their online banking. This more than can be said for some other parts of Europe.
  • mietek 7y ago
    Both HSBC and the HSBC-owned FirstDirect still have absolutely terrible apps.
    • cmsj 7y ago
      Trivial anecdote: My wife is with HSBC and the iOS app doubles as both a banking interface, and the authorisation code response generator. When she's in a web browser and needs to generate a code for the HSBC website (eg to add a new payee), she has to log out of the phone app to be able to get to the response code UI. It blows my mind every time she does it. How on earth did they come up with that UX. It's like they're actively trying to be awful. Apologies to anyone reading this who worked on this at HSBC, but yikes!
      • insomniacity 7y ago
        It's worse than you know - (at least with First Direct) if you log in to the app it logs you out of the website. I suspect the flow you noticed actually helps enforce that - if they gave you a code to let you use on the website, they'd have to log you out of the app anyway.
• downerending 7y ago
  I thought it was just me. HSBC is by far the worst customer technical experience of any financial produce/service I've ever encountered. You really have to try to be that bad.
• neplus 7y ago
  My primary personal account is with HSBC. A few years ago the login infrastructure - with the little keypad you had to use, etc. - was ridiculous and their app was only a bit better. However, over the past few years they've really improved. The website is now consistent across all tabs (at least that I use for personal banking) and the app is simplified with most functionality needed for personal use in there. On the personal side, I've always found the people at branches of HSBC (regardless of where you go) to be courteous and professional relative to the few others banks I have accounts with. I'm not in the UK, so perhaps things are different there, but in North America I've found them to be a slight step above average (insofar as you can be for retail banking --- it's all relative!).
• mpweiher 7y ago
  I was with Barclay's and it was a nightmare. Actually pulled the plug on my UK ltd. pre-Brexit due to Bankxit...