This has some interesting stats about Monzo in the mix:
(WPB is wealth and private banking, the HSBC UK division that the personal current account fits into).
Also: no mention of any challenger except Monzo in the deck.
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I don’t bank with HSBC and probably never will, so from someone who uses them, do you like them? Are they a good bank overall
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They are good in that they have all the instant notifications the same as the new banks do but apart from that noting special
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First Direct and Co-operative Bank don’t have very many young customers at all based on that, which is no surprise!
As for an overall verdict on HSBC: I concur that they are OK, as traditional banks go, but nothing special.
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I really like their “balance after bills” feature. It constantly updates, letting you know what your balance will be after DDs and SOs. You can edit it, too, unlike Monzo’s DD predictions.
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The main issue for a lot of people with FD is you need to technically qualify for an overdraft to even open an account. There isn’t any diversity in their accounts really to have a large customer base, especially young people who might struggle to qualify for the overdraft.
Edit: for the life of me I cannot find the page on their website talking about eligibility checking so maybe they have stopped this now. It used to say something similar to the HSBC Advance account:
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That’s no longer the case with First Direct (it may have been in the past), only HSBC Advance has that requirement.
Of course, one of the key selling points is the interest-free overdraft of up to £250 so most would at least want that to use the account.
I applied without an overdraft myself as I just wanted to be accepted for the bonus and had no real intention of using the account, plus with HSBC’s famously tight lending criteria I was concerned that they’d reject my application if I asked for one.
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Yes, they’ve done away with this now as far as I know.
I doubt this is the reason they don’t have much diversity. Great customer service plus an “app” to bank with is very 2012. They haven’t really innovated much since then if it all.
I would actually love for FD to have a renaissance and if they did I’d probably bank with them. I like the app and I think they have one of the best “tone of voice” structures out there. But, they are a dinosaur in a field of meteors.
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I’ve heard good things generally, but it has to be said I’ve heard of lots of people with relatively ordinary credit history’s be rejected for a current account, so I’ve always steered clear.
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I switched from First Direct to Monzo a few years back.
FD were pretty good in so far as the app and web banking systems let me do pretty much everything I ever needed, they always answered the phone very quickly, and I could use HSBC branches, which had machines for paying in loose change.
Monzo’s app was a bit slicker, better notifications, better management of direct debits, better visibility of upcoming payments, so I switched.
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HSBC do the “upcoming payments in the future” thing now too, and I think First Direct do as well (although not using predictive “Balance after bills” like HSBC - which is equivalent to Monzo’s “Left to spend” bar). I think they only show Direct Debits as upcoming slightly early in the transaction list.
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yes
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HSBC app is working again on iOS 16 beta! Just got an update on the AppStore!
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They have it in HK long time ago already, finally comes to uk
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3% interest rate on up to £10k if you make no withdrawals in a month
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Yup, opened one today. Dead easy.
Somewhere to put a sum waiting for a fix
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They just sent me a welcome email, with the old rates on 
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