Don't let HSBC bully you!

by Ed Bowsher on 05 March 2010  |  0 comments
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HSBC is refusing to provide a simple service to its customers until they've seen an HSBC mortgage advisor. This is monstrous behaviour!

This article on the Mortgage Solutions website raised my blood pressure today. It reveals that HSBC is treating some of its customers very badly indeed.

Here’s  the background. When you apply for a mortgage, more and more lenders won’t accept a print-out of an online bank statement as proof of income. That’s an understandable move given the level of mortgage fraud that was prevalent a few years ago.

One of these lenders is Woolwich. According to Mortgage Solutions, Woolwich now requires mortgage applicants who have an online current account with another bank to provide statements that are endorsed by a stamp and sign-off from a branch.

But HSBC won’t provide the stamp until the customer has had an appointment with an HSBC mortgage advisor first. Monstrous! If I banked with HSBC, I’d expect my bank to look after me and provide me with a reasonable service without attaching ridiculous conditions. I might not have the time to see an HSBC adviser, and even if I did, why should I be compelled to see someone? This is an abuse of the bank’s power over its customers.

Don’t get me wrong, HSBC has been offering some excellent mortgage products over the last year or so and that’s been great for the mortgage market. But that still doesn’t excuse HSBC’s behaviour. What’s more, I suspect that many HSBC customers will have their meeting with an HSBC advisor only to find that HSBC doesn’t want their custom anyway. The bank has been notorious over the last year for cherry-picking the best customers.

Mortgage Solutions – a publication aimed at the industry - presents this story as an attack on mortgage brokers. That’s because HSBC only sells mortgages direct to its customers, so mortgage brokers really dislike the bank. I think mortgage brokers offer a useful service – we have mortgage brokers at lovemoney.com – but that’s not the issue here.

The issue is that one of the largest banks in the world thinks it can bully its customers. Don’t stand for it! Fight, complain...and if necessary, move to another bank.

More: Why it is better to go to a mortgage broker

At lovemoney.com, you can research all the best deals yourself using our online mortgage service, or speak directly to a whole-of-market, fee-free lovemoney.com broker. Call 0800 804 4045 or email mortgages@lovemoney.com for more help.

This article aims to give information, not advice. Always do your own research and/or seek out advice from an FSA-regulated broker (such as one of our brokers here at lovemoney.com), before acting on anything contained in this article. 

Finally, we tend to only give the initial rate of a deal in our articles, but any deal which lasts for a shorter period than your mortgage term will revert to the lender's standard variable rate when the deal ends. Before you take out a deal, you should always try to find out from your lender what its standard variable rate is and how it will be determined in the future. Make sure you take all this information into account when comparing different deals.