Misery #1. When I got my first gold credit card from HSBC, I felt real happy to be with a world class bank . But the joy was short lived since they charged me 1000 for annual fee whereas it was promised the card would be free of cost. I threatened to discontinue, and then they reversed the fee altogether. Life was easier because of 0% fuel charge, and the once-a-year event 10% cash back which was to a max of Rs 1000, sadly this stingy bank has reduced to Rs 750 limit.
I think SBI is better since it gives 2% cash back on deptt stores and grocery - no strings attached (HDFC wants you to spend min 7500/month to avail cash back, Citibank has 5000 as min amt. If you dont spend this amount, you do not get money back!). Also, I have liked ICICI bank plat card since it gave me 50% cash back on airline tickets (i have got rs 15, 000 back!) - so its been a good deal!
Misery #2 - I took a home loan at 9.5 %. The day it was released, I was told the rate of interest has risen to 9.75%. I think its just a money making gimmick
Misery #3. RBI raised interest rates for home loan. HSBC by default, increases the tenure of EMI and not the EMI amount (this way we are in a loss). I went to stoopid baroda branch TWICE and gave written instructions to raise EMI amount and not tenure. Nothing happenned. To my horror, my interest was 12.5%, whereas the worst deal by any bank was 12% (some banks were charging 11% as well)
Misery #4 Whats worse, whenever I called phone banking, call used to get dropped. Once when I was lucky, I told call centre rep that the calls get dropped (no action taken) and that if it gets dropped, call me back. She refused to call back - not a policy. And Lo! The call dropped again.
Misery #5 - I took life protection on home loan (in case principle applicant dies, loan is waived off - so your survivors get the benefit of having the house to themselves with loan paid off). Some Vinay guy from Powai - Mumbai branch told me that amount was gonna be 13, 500. Sadly 16, 112 was charged. I made 2 trips to HSBC Mumbai, even dropped my contact details. Vinay promised to call back and clarify. Till date he never called!
Now that the personal visits and call centre contact was of no use, frustrated, I called HONG KONG. Made the ISD call - its cheap via yahoo voice (cheaper than STD!) and I lashed out on the lady. She escalated it to India. Then there were avalanche of calls from senior execs apologizing for bank’s behaviour. I told these guys that going to bank is of no use, and call centre is no good - so what should I do? Luckily, the issue was tracked aggressively from Mumbai and Chennai and the somehow managed to resolve my queries.
Misery #6. During the time the chennai/mumbai persons were rectifying my queries, my relationship manager from Baroda (PALKESH) called up and mentioned that since he was my relationship manager, he would look into the matter.. and then poof! he disappeared. After a few weeks, when chennai/mumbai teams resolved the issued, HSBC baroda called me that they were the right people to contact in future (...er... where were they when I walked into their office TWICE and placed my instructions? Where was my Baroda relationship manager when I was going thru this phase.. now that the issues were resolved, they wanted to emerge as the right people to contact????) Predictably I wrote another email to HSBC to change my relationship manager and change my Branch as well!!!
In short - HSBC has become from"world’s local bank" to "world’s crappiest bank"
I am not surprised that I saw HSBC getting the max no of negative feedback for any bank on mouthshut.com. Thanks to Mouthshut for letting us post our experiences for the sake of public interest as well.
I would personally advise persons to consider SBI / IDBI / Bank of Maharashtra or Baroda while applying for home loans. These private banks are a rip off... all of them!