HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece • Hacker News Board

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#211

Post by fryingpan » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 7:33 PM UTC

I worked at HSBC for a little bit. We often hear the term "too big to fail" in relation to big banks. This place is too big to succeed.

I was there supposedly to implement state-of-the-art trading systems and processes. I left after 2+ years with little to show. The pace of progress is glacial. Managers are scared to change the status quo because of fears of rocking the boat. Embarking on new projects risks making them look bad if the projects don't reach expectations.

One of the problems is HSBC's DPA, deferred prosecution agreement, with the Justice Department. Basically, HSBC needs to operate on a clean track record for 5+ years and the US government will avoid fining them even more. The result is a culture of fear combined with zero innovation. Just stay the course, get paid nicely in your nice cushy jobs. Screw over your clients in the meantime if you have to.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#212

Post by manarth » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 7:35 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #174

Silhouette wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The other comments on here about having multiple accounts for businesses can be a little tricky as some banks will not open a second business account if you already have done opened with someone else. e.g I had Lloyds business bank, tried Metro bank but they refused to open until I could prove Lloyds was closed. I wonder what the reasoning behind that is. Surely if I wanted to move my company's banking facilities fro…

It's to make structuring harder. Of course it is perfectly well possible to have multiple business accounts, no need for you to inform them of your other accounts with other banks (and privacy laws may forbid banks from sharing this information). I have accounts with both Rabo and ABN/AMRO at the moment and nothing would stop me from adding a third or even a fourth bank if I wanted to.

  no need for you to inform them of your other accounts with other banks
  (and privacy laws may forbid banks from sharing this information).

The UK have a small number of credit reference agencies, and UK banks universally (as far as I can tell - there may be extremely niche private banks which don't) share customer data with one or more credit reference agencies (and there is provision in law for this).

Every bank I know will carry out a credit-check on a customer opening a new account (even an existing customer), so your other accounts will be immediately visible to the bank you're applying to - and the fact of your application will also be recorded.

I have no idea how much that information would affect your application, but I'd be extremely surprised if questions weren't asked.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#213

Post by arcticbull » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 7:37 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #128

abritinthebay wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and that couple would be rich enough to afford a financial advisor anyhow.

500k is nowhere near rich enough to afford a financial advisor; many people save that much easily for retirement. Maybe 2 million.

Nah, that's not really true. If you have 500K (especially excluding retirement accounts) then you should really have it under management (robo, yourself, a fiduciary, whatever). The S&P is up 10% on the year so far, so that's $50,000 you could have made 1/1 through present. Obviously not a guarantee of future performance, and caveats apply, but that kind of money definitely has the potential to make more money, but not when in your 1% APR savings account.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#214

Post by arcticbull » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 7:39 PM UTC

sgroppino wrote: post #198

raugustinus wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then fund more loans on those loans. Like fractional reserve banking.

Then package them up and sell them as a triple-A bond. Hey we are getting somewhere now.

What could possibly go wrong ^_^

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#215

Post by arcticbull » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 7:40 PM UTC

arjie wrote: post #192

Pharylon wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With all their bad press, I'm actually kind of surprised anyone would purposely open an account with them right now. I'm not even up-to-date on whatever crap they're pulling today, but they're on my mental list of "companies I keep hearing bad things about".

When I tried to open a bank account having just moved to the UK, Barclays wanted me to wait two weeks for an appointment. HSBC had me signed up with money in my account on the same day. My debit card worked in a week.

I have an HSBC account because I have a presence in multiple countries and keeping everything consolidated is surprisingly convenient.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#216

Post by hesselink » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 7:48 PM UTC

amelius wrote: post #193

Reminds me of those horror stories about PayPal. You can always start a website like this one: http://www.paypalsucks.com/

The interesting thing is that he thanks PayPal for their help in this case.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#217

Post by Sephr » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 7:48 PM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #199

Sephr wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linode credit card info has been hacked so many times that I'm not surprised that HSBC is doing this. For any other service, I'd be upset if my bank did this, but Linode is quite literally the least secure paid service I've ever used. I've had multiple credit cards compromised as a direct result of multiple Linode hacks.

Seriously???

Yes.

The last time Linode got hacked while I was still a customer, I learned about it on HN from a third party before Linode even publicly acknowledged the incident. I decided enough was enough, and switched to a less cost-effective provider with a better security track record.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#218

Post by joering2 » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 8:05 PM UTC

joatmon-snoo wrote: post #132

joering2 wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What country you came from if i can ask? I hailed from Europe to USA in 2003. Got SSN, went to first Bank of America branch and opened account with $100 initial deposit. No problems at all. Credit Card was tricky - yes many banks will tell you "bad credit is better than none", but after 60 days of direct wire from my employer to the Bank, they gave me secured $500 Amex. That was enough to show them for the next 60 da…

http://www.corp-research.org/bank-of-america

Great read, thanks! This exactly shows how dirty each bank is, whether its Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of Ameirca, or any other major bank, and that system IS broken, corrupted, and only gives slaps on the wrist for things you and me would spend rest of our lives in Club Feds.

The only reason I'm resultant from switching to something smaller is the number of ATMs available; otherwise my choice would bt BB&T.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#219

Post by cool_username » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 8:08 PM UTC

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #96

bradleyankrom wrote: post #7

> Don’t bank with HSBC. After having similarly-frustrating things happen with my HSBC personal accounts over the years, I fully support this suggestion. They are awful. They take extreme steps (suspending accounts, rejecting payments, etc.) without contacting the customer; when you reach out to them, it's hours of being passed around before you reach the right person. If you reach a person at all.

Their online banking is truly appalling, too. No full history of past payments to make a repeat payment easier. Weird distinction between 'current payments' (or whatever they call the default 'account' screen) and 'past statements' — seems like a hangover from the days when we used to get paper statements. Still a crazily short session timeout. I would add to the list, but I can't login to my account at the moment si…

> I would add to the list, but I can't login to my account at the moment since I don't have my bespoke HSBC 2FA physical device (despite having a far-superior, non-polluting equivalent on my phone...)

If someone banks and does 2FA on the same phone, if the phone gets hacked (malicious app) you have a big problem on your hands.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#220

Post by cm2187 » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 8:17 PM UTC

As a banker, I am the first agree that banks offer an absolutely shit service, and the story in this article is only too common. But one should keep in mind that this is the direct consequence of over-regulation.

Regulations creates massive barriers to entry, through the complexity of the laws and regulation banks have to deal with and the amount of capital required to open a bank. As a result, no competition, and therefore the sort of monopolistic behavior that you normally observe in nationalized industries, where your bank doesn't give a shit whether you are satisfied or not.

In addition to that, most western countries deputized the banks to act as law enforcement under the threat of multi-billion fines. For certain banks, pretty much all profits from the past 5-7y have been nationalized through fines. As a business, banks will go to any extremity for these fines to cease, even it it means burning a few clients (or employees).

We must like the consequences of what we wish for.