You donāt. I applied for a current account and immediately then upgraded to the Premier account. If you do it this way, they donāt ask about your income. If you apply directly then they ask for income information.
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Wish it was that easyā¦I just got off the phone with support on 3 different teamsā¦
Nobody on the fraud team could explain my TfL or cab problems, itās just āApple Pay sometimes doesnāt work and we canāt fix thatā. My account is in good standing and they did block my account this morning until I approved the TfL transaction from yesterday.
IT wasnāt able to fix my app issue and has to escalate it. Restarting/deleting/reinstalling just auto loads me into the 403 error splash screen. Weird doom loop. Online banking is fine though thankfully.
Honestly, the IT team was super nice and understanding and saved the entire 30m phone call bouncing aroundā¦.but Iām honestly so disappointed the fraud team couldnāt give me an answer when I asked them why they were not alerting me of potential fraud and payment declines as they were happening. Am I overreacting about all this? This feels like such a basic required thing to get rightā¦I just have no context on how other UK banks handle risk and fraud. I donāt like the idea now of paying for dinners and items only to have my card randomly declined with no immediate resolution, for me to then panic look at my account on mobile to make sure nothing is wrong. Not to mention Iām depositingā¦.a lotā¦with them. Itās making me uneasy if this is how they treat premier accounts.
(sorry for all the walls of text to people following, this community is so beyond helpful as I ramp up on uk finance world)
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At this point you may be better off just jumping ship.
NatWest is the most fintech kinda of bank from a high street perspective, then Lloyds, and HSBC is getting there very slowly.
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So a few things in this, for me.
Despite what Lloyds want you to think there is absolutely no difference between normal and premier accounts. The ā24/7ā is clearly just the emergency card line and has the same opening hour limitations. I canāt believe they can market this as a leading reason to be honest.
Lloyds is the most trigger friendly bank Iāve ever been with. So this will be frustrating because you might experience it more, but it will happen with others. HSBC once blocked my card when trying to pay for trips abroad on the CC, but when I used the global money card it went through right away.
I mostly agree with this. Iād say speed is worse than quality of feature. For me while HSBC is a little behind the pack there is very little bloat, features that exist make sense.
Just to flip this, If service is key then Iād say Barclays and HSBC have always been excellent, and HSBC premier service is an edge above and a world apart from Lloyds in that context.
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Shame NatWest/RBS customer service is a shambles.
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Iāve been on the chat to HSBC this afternoon as I had some questions about ISAs and bonds and things that Iām planning on moving over from Lloyds. I must say the CS and chat is in a different league! All Lloyds do is tell you to call them, whereas HSBC answered everything (quickly) in the chat.
I think Iām just going to leave Lloyds now. Like the person above said, I canāt go out for the evening/out for dinner on holiday/ whatever and never know whether Iām going to hit my mysterious and seemingly random Apple Pay limit.
Lloyds have been pretty good except for their management of cards. I had a terrible time earlier this year trying to add my cards to Apple Pay and Lloyds just didnāt know what to do and in the end just told me that basically Apple Pay is a privilege and not a right.
It was solved by getting a new phone but now theyāre imposing unseen mystery Apple Pay limits - possibly so that their own āLpayā option in the future looks good - and I think Iāve had enough now, even their customer service fraud guy told me āI know itās a bit ridiculous, but youāll always need to take your card with you in case you hit the limit that I donāt know and can tell youā
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This was the prime reasoning for me going back to HSBC, while it was good to see what Lloyds could offer it was something I missed and am glad to have back.
One thing to be aware of is opening investment accounts seems to be broken currently. Iāve tried in app, on the web and even the over the phone option didnāt work.
It seems a bit extreme to leave just because the Apple pay doesnāt work. What is the problem with using the physical card (and pin required)?
I have recently āreturnedā to Lloyds for their Ultra credit card, as they had the 1% cashback offer on all spend for a year, so all of my spend goes through on that currently.
I use returned in quotes because I never actually shut my accounts and other credit card as theyāre my oldest, I just havenāt used them other than occasionally to keep the cards alive. They just had nothing to offer that piqued my interest.
So far so good, although today I did run into some issues today as I have been getting about 10 automated calls supposedly from Lloyds on 03330459535. Itās a computerized voice saying so and to press a button to be connected to the fraud line or something, I have hung up or let the call ring out every time as itās a bit fishy, Iāll call them back at my leisure (on a known number) or come to a branch. Has this happened to anyone else, is this normal procedure from Lloyds these days?
Apple Pay is essential for me in many ways, I feel safer using it and wish to continue using it without a mystery daily limit being put on it.
Examples:
Go out for a run and to the gym and just take my watch with me to buy a drink/shake when Iām there (the gym is Face ID so no card needed)
On a city break in Europe, go out for the evening knowing that my cards and wallet are safely in my hotel safe and canāt be lost/pickpocketed
Buying things online, I use Apple Pay a lot for this instead of entering my card details, name, address, etc I just double click
TFL, going on the tube you donāt even have to double click any more and I certainly donāt want to be getting my cards and wallet out in some of the stations I go to!
Just generally using Apple Pay on my phone and watch without hoping every time that Iām not going to hit the limit and have to use my card for the rest of the day/evening
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They donāt call. A text or they let you look for them.
Your cards would stop working if it was Lloyds. Have you tried sending a payment at all recently?
Unless you get Premierā¦ Their premier customer service is amazingā¦ Guaranteed to be talking to a real human within 30 seconds of calling. That alone is worth the fee for a Black account!
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Not wanting to carry a physical card in 2026 is the same as not wanting to carry a checkbook once plastic was widespreadā¦
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You can have Premier without Black (just saying - sorry if obvious)
The recent HSBC Premier seasonal email included
Plus, when you call us, youāll usually get an answer within 30 seconds.
And it comes with no fee + free family travel insurance.
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HSBC premier has no fee?
This also came with the email I got for my standard account.
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No fee, it works on entry criteria instead which I think theyāre more up to enforcement that Lloyds, but people seem to have mixed experiences of this.
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Whenever Iāve called HSBC there genuinely has not been a queue
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I may give it a go though HSBC seem not to like me but FD is very generous to me. I know these banking things sometimes make no sense.
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