Troubles with HSBC international transfers

[4u2mad]

I don't know if other members are experiencing this problem, so trying to get some feedback.

I have been living here for about eight years, and have maintained a BKK FCD in GBP account for most of that time. Everything had been going well.a monthly international transfer in GBP to the account, no problem.

Starting October this year, HSBC decided to send me Baht. Calls from BKK bank ensued, and I ended up running around filling in deposit slips, and loosing out on the abysmal exchange rate offered for Baht by HSBC. Prolonged secure emails online and HSBC actually refunded my out of pocket expenses.

Roll on to November and in the reference box for international transfers I put 'GBP ONLY' also sending a secure email to that effect. No problem with the transfer.

On the 6th of this month, I received another secure email, with apologies, and the information that the mistake had been noted, and the relevant information entered on their system. Reassured by their email, I made another international transfer, taking the same precaution of noting it in the ref box and sending another secure email to the effect 'GBP ONLY'

I was surprised to get a call from BKK bank that yet again they had received the amount in Thai Baht!! This time I told them to send it back, at HSBC's expense. Somewhere along the line somebody is employing a clerk with an IQ no larger than their shoe size. Called HSBC direct in the UK, and now have refused to pay the charges from either bank, and requested they send the money FOC,

Has anyone else had this problem?

HSBC blames third parties, but I am pretty sure that they deal direct with BKK in the UK as they are the clearing bank

[darrendsd]

No experience with HSBC however I had the same situation with The Halifax a few times

I now do my transfers via the Net but for a while I was doing it by phone, it turns out that the operator had sent it once in Baht in error and as that was on the system that's what was subsequently sent for the next few transfers

If you do make your transfers via phone then you may need to point this out to them as they are in the process of doing the transfer, if it is a new operator they may not realize what is on the system

Edited December 9, 2013 by darrendsd

[SheungWan]

Before you make that telephone call next time, send them a message logging the past history, tell them that you are going to make another call and request acknowledgement that your request is clearly understood.

[4u2mad]

Sorry, maybe I was not clear. All these transfers were done on HSBC's internet banking system.

Except for the phone call they received this afternoon, to bring to their attention they had fouled it up again!!

[meom]

If they are the ones that screw up aren't you supposed to see that at the time you make the transfer?

I mean if they convert pound to baht and send baht you immediately see the exchange rate that you're getting on your screen before you confirm it.

Seems to me bkk is screwing up.

[marstons]

sent you PM with European CEO e-mail and head of his complaints team. Contact her problem should be sorted, she will contact department head who deals with this. Secure messaging forget it. Pay peanuts get monkeys.

[SheungWan]

Sorry, maybe I was not clear. All these transfers were done on HSBC's internet banking system.

Except for the phone call they received this afternoon, to bring to their attention they had fouled it up again!!

I was considering a reverse of the process ie an internal message in advance of the instruction and making the instruction by phone ensuring that you have the person's name at the other end who is undertaking your request.

[cassde]

Which bank is your receiving bank in Thailand? I use Bangkok Bank and make transfers online using their London office, sometimes from my HSBC account, always in GBP, with no problems at all.

[SantiSuk]

Have never had your problem making an online transfer from HSBC UK to Bangkok Bank or Krungsri Bank. Last online transfer was however 4 months ago.

More recently I have been doing larger transfers (because £/baht rate is good and so are Thai savings rates) and have phoned up rather than used online. Again no problems with that.

[GrahamMaddison]

I do all my transfers with UK forex .a minimum of £1000 per transaction and exceedingly good exchange rates .beat the high street banks any day and even as good as if not better than having GB £ to transfer in Thailand

[GBK]

I closed my HSBC account because they are serially useless.

However, I seem to remember that when making an international payment, there is/was a drop down box wherein you specify which currency is to be sent.

Did you make that specification? If not, they will default to the national currency of the receiving bank.

HTH.

[Garry]

Sorry, maybe I was not clear. All these transfers were done on HSBC's internet banking system.

Except for the phone call they received this afternoon, to bring to their attention they had fouled it up again!!

I had nothing but grief with HSBC in the MIddle East when they took over my lcoal bank there. After almost two years of little or no action (yes I am a patient guy), I finally had enough and I said becuase of their inaction that I will placing an official complaint to the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Within two weeks 'Hey Presto', all my problems were resolved. I have the Jersey Financial Services Commission's PDF 'Guidance Note: Complaints against regulated financial service providers' if you would like a copy.

[srn89]

Yes exactly the same problem with a transfer i did this month, there was no provision to send Sterling to here only a box showing a transfer in Thai Baht.

I shall also be contacting HSBC shortly and asking why all of a sudden i cannot transfer Sterling, never been a problem for the many years that i have done transfers.

Probably just another way of them earning by giving the normal rubbish rates that banks are known for.

[4u2mad]

I closed my HSBC account because they are serially useless. However, I seem to remember that when making an international payment, there is/was a drop down box wherein you specify which currency is to be sent. Did you make that specification? If not, they will default to the national currency of the receiving bank. HTH.

Yes, and always specified GBP. In the reference box too. Always now send secure email with instructions at the same time. At the moment nothing seems to help. Emailed chief exec now

[GBK]

I'd change banks if I were you.

I went to Lloyds Jersey and they have been better and a LOT cheaper.

[rotary]

About 9 years ago a company I worked for in Thailand used HSBC. To keep a long story short they are sad news. High rates for everything they do and lots of hassles.

[Maestro]

I had nothing but grief with HSBC in the MIddle East when they took over my lcoal bank there. After almost two years of little or no action (yes I am a patient guy), I finally had enough and I said becuase of their inaction that I will placing an official complaint to the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Within two weeks 'Hey Presto', all my problems were resolved. I have the Jersey Financial Services Commission's PDF 'Guidance Note: Complaints against regulated financial service providers' if you would like a copy.

From the opening post in this topic it seems that the OP makes his remittances from an HSBC branch in the UK. Therefore, it seems unlikely that the Jersey Financial Services Commission would be the correct address for complaints.

[Maestro]

From the OP:

...I was surprised to get a call from BKK bank that yet again they had received the amount in Thai Baht!! This time I told them to send it back, at HSBC's expense. Somewhere along the line somebody is employing a clerk with an IQ no larger than their shoe size...

Something must be seriously wrong with HSBC if there is any human involvement with an online payment order for a remittance to a Bangkok Bank account in Thailand except if the order form is incorrectly or incompletely filled out, in which case the bank's computer should directly reject it with an on-screen message. I would have difficulty trusting a bank which does not have this process fully automated.

[Maestro]

4u2mad, I looked at HSBC's demo but could not find a screenshot of the international payment order form. You mentioned the reference box for international transfers. For whom is the information you type in this box, for HSBC or for the beneficiary? If it is for HSBC, could it be the fact that you wrote something in this field and/or the secure email you sent to HSBC regarding this payment order which made human intervention necessary and thus human error possible?

[Merlindxb]

I thought I was the only one having this problem with HSBC: ie I type in the amount and in the "Drop down" box, select GBP Sterling. then. HSBC came back with an exchange rate, that is 3-7% below current exchange rate...I but I wanted to send GBP Sterling from my account to my Thai account, so, I back paged and did it again! and so did HSBC. this all started 3 months ago!

With a charge of £17 and 4 working days to clear and now the currency exchange rate rip off....they have lost this customer....

RGS///Peter

[starship]

I have not done a transfer for the last 6 months or so, so I don't know if things have definitely changed but:

I commented in another post that I noticed about a year ago that HSBC had altered my default template for overseas transfers from GBP to Thai Baht. I had to manually change it back. There is a drop down menu that gives a choice of currencies to send. If it says Thai Baht, click it and see if it will change to allow you to select GBP. If you hadn't realised this change, then you my have just OK'd your standard instruction to be sent without recognizing that Thai Baht was being sent. They may have now changed it so that you can't send GBP, I don't know.

The comment box you are referring to might be the message box for the person receiving the funds and thus it may have not been acted upon.

I have used their online transfers for around 7 years and only had one small problem. Generally very pleased with the service, but this small change shows the sneaky side to banks. There is a lot of money to be made on exchange rates between different country's, particularly large transfers for condo/house purchases etc and that's why they are doing this. Everything is profit driven.

[SantiSuk]

I closed my HSBC account because they are serially useless. However, I seem to remember that when making an international payment, there is/was a drop down box wherein you specify which currency is to be sent. Did you make that specification? If not, they will default to the national currency of the receiving bank. HTH.

Having spent 4 years managing the affairs of several members of my family which required me to deal with many of the UK banks and building societys I'm afraid to report that the entire industry is almost uniformly incompetent. Too many new products and system changes invented at HO and too little money left after the HO and investment banking fat cats have stuck their trotters in the trough to pay for more than monkeys to man the tills.

HSBC is no worse than Halifax, Lloyds, RBS, Nat West, Santander, Post Office, Britannia, Nationwide. I did not have dealings with Barclays and Virgin Money was the only bank that impressed me.

The only thing they are good at is handling complaints and grovelling. They get lots of practice at this and you can make serious money if right is on your side and you lay it on thick.

[Garry]

I had nothing but grief with HSBC in the MIddle East when they took over my lcoal bank there. After almost two years of little or no action (yes I am a patient guy), I finally had enough and I said becuase of their inaction that I will placing an official complaint to the Jersey Financial Services Commission. Within two weeks 'Hey Presto', all my problems were resolved. I have the Jersey Financial Services Commission's PDF 'Guidance Note: Complaints against regulated financial service providers' if you would like a copy.

From the opening post in this topic it seems that the OP makes his remittances from an HSBC branch in the UK. Therefore, it seems unlikely that the Jersey Financial Services Commission would be the correct address for complaints.

Yet I did read the OP's post and I would not have answered if JFSC did not just cover the Middle East. I checked JFSC before I posted. Feel free to have a look for yourself

[lineofentry]

Hsbc have recently updated their international payments online page/service, my previously saved payee details were lost. They have also inserted a really annoying page of waffle that had to be 'accepted' before you can do anything. One of the 'improvements' is that transfer service will automatically pass a little business to their own currency exchange Dept and default the transfer to the payee's currency. To avoid this select 'GBP equivelent' from the currency menu.

The first transfer I carried out on the new system did not even have the GBP option and was sent in Baht, I complained. They contacted me and after emailing through a copy of SCB exchange rates for that day was credited with £80. Fair enough.

On the plus side the new service operates 24/7 rather than just within certain UK banking hours and if the instructions are given before noon UK time the funds are in SCB by the next banking day morning.

[jacko45k]

I ponder whether

1) They employ idiots.

2) There is more profit in it for them to send you baht due to the poor exchange rate, so they do it anyhow hoping you will let it go.

(Banks see their customers as wallets they are obliged to dip their fingers into these days).

I had problems with HSBC once clearing a transfer through Barclays, who took another £30. Fortunately I go to the UK annually, and went in to see the manager armed with some paperwork to remonstrate and got it back.

They are morons!

[Maestro]

HSBC seems to be a bank that is resting on its laurels. A great bank a hundred years ago but did not keep up with the the times.

[4u2mad]

well, I had a bit of advice from Marston on this topic, which I followed, result! restitution of all my charges, phone calls and out of pocket expenses. The drop down menu for currencies only has GBP-equivalent. Now English usage means that it is OK to send whatever they feel like! It should just say GBP - then there can be no mistake. Of course the bank is going to make a buck if they can on their shi**y exchange rate. The lady I have been corresponding with has told me that they will look into "upgrading" their system. I think that she means"downgrade" so it works like it used to.

Also looked into UKForex, on the advice of another member. Better rate than either bank and no fee if you put TBH into a savings acc. So a winner all round! Yes, you have to open an account, and it will take a couple of weeks to do that. Yes, another password and user name for the little black box we are not supposed to keep. But I think on balance it's the way forward for me.

[4u2mad]

Pretty sure your right about about make business for there foreign exchange dept. As to employing idiots, I guess you get what you pay for, right?

[SheungWan]

well, I had a bit of advice from Marston on this topic, which I followed, result! restitution of all my charges, phone calls and out of pocket expenses. The drop down menu for currencies only has GBP-equivalent. Now English usage means that it is OK to send whatever they feel like! It should just say GBP - then there can be no mistake. Of course the bank is going to make a buck if they can on their shi**y exchange rate. The lady I have been corresponding with has told me that they will look into "upgrading" their system. I think that she means"downgrade" so it works like it used to.

Also looked into UKForex, on the advice of another member. Better rate than either bank and no fee if you put TBH into a savings acc. So a winner all round! Yes, you have to open an account, and it will take a couple of weeks to do that. Yes, another password and user name for the little black box we are not supposed to keep. But I think on balance it's the way forward for me.

Actually I think there was no mistake. GBP-equivalent I believe means the appropriate currency of the country being transferred to.

However, I do agree that HSBC rates can be beaten by third parties eg as an HSBC customer I have by-passed their rates for substantial amounts and used a third party which in my case has been MoneyCorp. Whether Moneycorp offer a straight sterling transfer facility I haven't checked, but since this facility is not offered online by HSBC we know enough now to make a telephone call to initiate the process. If that was messed up then a serious issue of instructions being disregarded but this case apparently not.

Edited December 11, 2013 by SheungWan