I once had a very good opinion of HSBC (afterall P.G. Wodehouse once worked there)... that of course has changed since I actually started banking with them.
They are completely unreliable and their customer service is extremely rude to boot. They make simple things like asking for a cheque book a hassle.
I requested a cheque book from them, and was assured that I would receive it in 3- 4 working days. I didn’t.
2 weeks later I receive a call from them peremptorily telling me to pick up the cheque book from their bank else they would destroy it. Apparently sometime during the last two weeks they had sent it twice without bothering to inform me.
HSBC, contrary to expectation, has their concept of customer service quite muddled. They have odd working hours (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.) which are inconvenient for anyone who works.
They refuse to be helpful and go an extra step to cater to customers. They refuse to acknowledge their mistakes and are fully prepared to let customers bear the cost for their mistakes.
At the time of opening my account (which unfortunately I cannot close, it being a salary account), I had asked for a debit card that allows me to make 2 transactions per month on other bank ATMs free of cost.
However, what they sent me was a normal debit card. Nothing on the printed matter they sent me indicated which card I had been sent.
It was only months later that I realised that they had silently been charging me for all the external transactions I had been making. When confronted with this, they denied responsibility and refused to refund the money. It was only after much debate that they finally refunded part of the money they had unduly charged me.
In case you are considering banking with HSBC, I would fervently advise against such a step.
This is an awful bank with no notions of customer service.
They have an extreme paucity of ATMs.