I have to say reading that story I do feel sorry for you, it sounds to be like your describing HSBC - there’s a reason to name and shame these companies, they need to buck their ideas up. My experience has not been as bad as you, but as an example my debit card NEVER works at POS - stopped working while in college - but does at ATMs, according to customer services there’s nothing wrong with the card and I have had a replacement since then and still doesn’t work.
I have all but given up with HSBC. I use cash for nearly everything - not ideal but the only way to pay bills.
Dislike:
HSBC app is awful, does constant in-app slow updates and is so slow all the time at every request. Fast balance is not fast it takes about 30 secs + to load.
Like: Nothing
Maybe that I can see my balance … pretty simple IMO.
Wait, that works for you? Stopped working for me after the last in-app update.
Sounds like the super secret fraud squad have put a lock on your card for sure.
They actually emailed me right at the beginning of the year to say they’d be releasing a brand new app soon, so users will have to delete the old app and download the new one from the App Store. They really, really don’t know how app updates are supposed to work, do they?
Baffling how Mondo can practically build a bank in the time it takes HSBC to make an app.
HSBC shut down the Fast balance app and implemented it in the HSBC app. And I can confirm mine works all the time. (But still it does take some time to load the fast balance in the HSBC app)
I’m with RBS, I think their app is OK generally but certainly not standout.
The four things that really annoy me about the app are:
I can’t pay new people from the App, I have to do that online and even then I need to use a card reader. I also can’t write a note to go with a payment to explain what it’s for - the reference usually limits me to a tiny amount of characters and is the same every time I pay a person.
I can’t see what I actually bought in each transaction on my statement. I know that no banks can do this, but it is really annoying and seems like it should have been built into banking systems from the early days. I want to essentially see a digital copy of the receipt alongside each transaction on my statement, since I often have no idea what the transaction was even for because the merchant name is nondescript and there is no receipt.
Perhaps the most annoying - I can’t use the app on both my phone and my tablet. I like to use the app from both, depending on which device I happen to be using when I want to access the app. The annoying thing is that when 8 use the app on my iPad it wipes the app on my phone and I have to go through the whole setup process again as a new user next time I want to use the phone app. When finish registering on the phone app again and log in, it then wipes the ipad app and the cycle continues…
The balance takes days to update to reflect recent transactions.
The one thing I really like about it is they have a home screen widget that just shows your balance. You can then pull down the Today/Notifications screen and see your balance without having to open their app and login.
It’s relatively slow and takes about 5 seconds to show but it’s better than nothing!
LIKE:
*Marketable FX rates for fair conversion when spending overseas.
*Multi-currency balance accounts (ability to do FX conversion between hard currencies on your account)
*Multi-currency payments (e.g. pay EUR with GPB balance for SEPA purpose, to reduce recipient’s landing costs)
*Security wallet style account - primary wallet to have all money at MONDO, secondary wallet to have available for card spending (ATM, merchants, even limits for your wife’s spending - this heavily reduces theft exposure, card sniffing, money can be swapped between wallets via app access in no time)
*Regional locks (heavily secure potential “spending from Thailand” when actually in Canada)
*Automatic overnight savings of positive balances
Having milti-card availability - additional virtual credit card for online purchases only
Easy setting of wire transfers, including paying to accounts with reference (that actually works)
NOT LIKE:
Rebranding standard banking business models.
Making fuss about things that count today as a fintech standard.
Well I’m just going to say, I’ve tried a few banks. (First direct, Lloyds, nationwide and Halifax) and the two apps from Lloyds a d Halifax are leaps and bounds ahead. Just being able to logon using three characters from your password is brill. Abeat they used to refuse to work with a rooted device which I didn’t like. But got around it😉. But it’s annoying that I have to re-authenicate my device every time my phone updates. Although that might be me.
The two things I like best are all the contact details for your branch…tel and email etc…in the Handelsbanken app.
And in the Monese app the way it shows a SEPA payment in two currencies, sending currency and receiving currency, and you can type in whichever you prefer. Other bank apps often force you to enter in one currency neccessitating having to often convert an amount in your head. i.e. if you want to send €600 you should not have to enter the GBP equivalent v if you want to send £500 in Euro you should not need to work out what that amount will be and enter that. Part of the reason some bank apps so inflexible are due to exchange rates being applied when someone manually does the transaction you set up in your app rather than it being done at the point you enter it so they can’t say what the rate is live.
I would totally agree with this. What’s the point in telling someone they have gone overdrawn without saying how much by. My bank allow until a set time on the day you would go overdrawn to top it up without receiving charges (because everyone micalculates occasionally) - but I have also transferred it over in various amounts as I didn’t know how much I needed to replenish in order to cover the (often pending) item.
- this heavily reduces theft exposure, card sniffing, money can be swapped between wallets via app access in no time)