Card work

[j4]

A few weeks ago I finally got round to cancelling three credit cards (leaving me with just one, which is quite enough). The three to get the chop were:

• HSBC - the card I got with my student account in 1996, heavily used until about 6 months ago
• Egg - a card I originally got on a 0% balance transfer deal to help me pay off the HSBC card, and had used occasionally thereafter
• first direct - ditto, except that I hardly ever used this card after the initial balance transfer

The banks' different approaches to cancelling the cards were interesting to note.

• first direct eventually sent a clear and official-looking letter and form with a pre-paid envelope to confirm cancellation and return my card (cut in half).
• Egg phoned me up fairly promptly to confirm that I wanted to cancel, to tell me that I didn't need to return the card so long as I destroyed it, to ask me why I was cancelling it (on being told "I just don't need more than one credit card" they just said "fair enough!" and didn't push or argue) and to read me the small print (I can't reapply within 12 months).
• HSBC ... nada. Absolutely no checking, no acknowledgement, but I can no longer log in to my online banking, so I assume they have closed the account. (Some of you may remember that it took me FIVE MONTHS to close my current account with them, and when I finally managed to overcome their obstructiveness to achieve this -- after several phone calls and two visits to the branch -- I asked them to send me a closing statement; they said they would, and never did.)

I was rather hoping that HSBC would ask me why I was leaving, and they didn't even do that, so I didn't have a chance to tell them it was because of their consistently appalling customer service, uncompetitive rates, unhelpful staff, total lack of communication, and generally being as much use as a chocolate fireguard. A mouldy chocolate fireguard. It seems a bit pointless writing to them now to complain about a service I no longer use, but instead I'll just disrecommend them here.

The annoying thing is that HSBC are one of the (as far as I can tell) very few banks who explicitly offer a house-sharing mortgage for up to four people. Unfortunately I wouldn't trust them to organise the proverbial drinking spree in a drink-producing establishment, let alone to manage a mortgage, so I'm just hoping that some more competent banks will start to offer the same. (Not because I'm personally interested in it, just because I think it's a Good Thing!)

Comments

[oldbloke.livejournal.com]

I may be about to cancel my TSB Visa card, as I hear they're going to charge an annual fee to people who pay off every month.
I was wondering what to replace it with, but L says I should use 'our' card for my personal stuff and transfer the dosh to the account we use to pay it off with. 'Our' card is Egg, but with a small% cash back on every use, which is why we have it. The Pru are selling Egg to somebody else, though, so that may change, in which case...

[aardvark179.livejournal.com]

Friends' mortgages scare me, there just seem to be so many ways in which things could go wrong, but I agree if I were thinking of going down that route I'd want good evidence that the lender was very well organised and on the ball.

[gerald_duck]

There's a reason the Midland Bank changed its name to HSBC. No longer being shit isn't it.

[emperor]

I have an HSBC card, because it's the only one I have with a plausibly-large credit limit. My other bank, Nationwide, are just as inept, sadly :(

[glittertigger]

I don't have a credit card at all any more. I applied for an HSBC one a year or so ago (I was going abroad and thought I ought to have one) and they kept losing paperwork and never set it up. Possibly a blessing in disguise.

I have a mortgage with them and at least that service seems to be competently run.

[caramel-betty.livejournal.com]

The annoying thing is that HSBC are one of the (as far as I can tell) very few banks who explicitly offer a house-sharing mortgage for up to four people.

Via the magic of Google (http://www.google.com/) and boredom (http://offensive-mango.livejournal.com/285149.html):

• Guardian Money article about shared purchases (http://money.guardian.co.uk/property/firsttimebuyers/story/0,,1921797,00.html) which mentions various places


• Share to Buy (http://www.sharetobuy.com/) with the Britannia (http://www.britannia.co.uk/)


• They also claim that Abbey and Skipton will do this sort of thing, though their websites are strangely empty of any references to it. But, you know, a phone call could answer that.

[jvvw.livejournal.com]

You've got me worried - I'm actually in the process of moving my bank account to HSBC. Jon's used them for years and the folk at our local branch know exactly who we are and bend over backwards to be helpful. I've been impressed so far. It was the fact that it took me over an hour at a branch of Barclays to get my address changed when we moved that was the final straw, and our joint account and mortgage is with them, so it made sense.

[i-ludicrous.livejournal.com]

I find I have to have this kind of credit card cull every couple of years. So far the HSBC card I got when I was 18 has always survived, but I think it will go in the next round: they have finally decided to get rid of the interest free period for cash advances, which is the only reason I have hung on to it up till now. I can't understand why they ever thought that was a good idea in the first place...

[voiceofsauron.livejournal.com]

Hello my name is David. I work for HSBC.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

I keep one spare card in a safe place, unused except for a couple of subscriptions, as a backup in case the main card is stolen - or in case the issuer withdraws it.

...Which leads to your point about HSBC: if you don't trust them, dont trust them. I find it astonishing that anyone thinks otherwise.