Nice, thanks for confirming.
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Anyone recently had these texts after applying for a current account? …
“Thanks for your recent application. We’re busier than usual and it may take longer to
process. You don’t need to do anything. We’ll be in touch soon…”
Just wondering if anyone can report a time scale after receiving this. I previously had an HSBC account so expecting delays like reported in the first direct discussion 
.
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My friend applied for the Advance account a few days back, and got the same. Nothing as of yet though, obviously not working days.
I applied for their bog standard account a month ago, never got back to me, even post online ID checks, and so I ended up going into branch and they finished it.
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If it’s the same as First Direct then it took them around 10 business days
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. I’m 17 and with HSBC. Next year I’d like to have First Direct for current, and HSBC for savings. Will First Direct open me an account at 18, despite having little to no history etc?
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Unfortunately I’m very impatient…
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Time to get your backside into the city centre, me thinks 
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Yes, although they were too quick to send it. I applied Friday evening, and they sent that text on Sunday.
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first direct was aiming to get younger customers on board, so you might indeed fit its profile now.
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I like the card now, it looks sleek. (edit: FD black one) HSBC one looks a bit silly. I have the vertical normal bank account one. The hong kong vertical one with the ‘low poly lion’ looks sweet - as does their Global Money account, which I’ll be opening for USD transactions next year.
Not only that their customer service is supposedly top-notch 
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You’re not alone in your appreciation of the low poly lion.
Funny story with first direct, they once answered the phone so quickly it didn’t even ring first, and I was very confused.
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How many times must one say low poly lion prior to HSBC bringing it back?
Are they UK-based customer service wise? I needed to remove a fraud block (apparently they don’t know my spending that well) via calling them and it took 20 minutes on the phone to be put through to someone, somewhere else, then passed to 4 other people, the 4th in the UK, and she ended up giving me compensation.
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first direct are yes, Leeds and Glasgow, apparently falling back to an overflow HSBC call centre if they get busy.
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Leeds . It’s sad I must wait a year.
(Edit: I bet I walk past their contact centre through the backend of the week, as I seem to for many other big companies) Edit 2: their contact centre LS10 is close to where I study and work!
Currently, I use HSBC to pay my phone bill, and save money. Metro Bank for buying sarnies as it were, but their app goes down all the time! I’ve a dormant Barclays account but find it’s kind of dated.
Any good banks to replace Metro?
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You could mention it every minute of every day and HSBC won’t bring the lions back. The bank found it to be a difficult design from an accessibility point of view and the new simpler design reflects this.
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I think HSBC are just “slow” - I opened a while ago an advanced account and it took a week just for them to note that I had applied, and another two weeks to open it.
It was the same more recently with FD, but as you allude I think that this was due to being a previous customer, new customers seem to report much quicker access.
BTW - conscious that there is crossover between the two (HSBC/FD) but from experience, FD are really great at answering the phone, occasionally you get the HSBC “fallback” centre but this isn’t as good.
With HSBC, you never get FD as a “fallback” and therefore the phone service, I have found, was so terrible I ended up closing the account and moving to Monzo, and now FD again.
Rather annoyingly, HSBC don’t let you switch a credit card to a different one. I wanted to change my regular card to a rewards card, but just switch the account over, I don’t really want an entirely separate card, or to open a new one and close my old one as it has 5 years of payment history. Barclays let you upgrade and downgrade cards in the app whenever you want.
Only if you are eligible for other cards. I’m being offered 3 other cards in the app but my mother, also of excellent credit, has no offers.
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If you’re eligible sure, but HSBC can’t switch it even if you are. When I switched from a regular Barclaycard to a Rewards card, it created a new account number but was the same record on my file, HSBC say they can’t do that and would need to be an entirely separate card.
I suppose I don’t know if that’s common with other providers, or if Barclays are more flexible than others when it comes to switching which card you have.
Amex let you upgrade and downgrade cards within the same family (i.e. cashback, points, etc.)
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