HSBC US Reviews

I travel internationally for work and am in multiple countries every month. I opened this account because of HSBC ‘s global availability. Boy what junk. I have had my HSBC Premier global account debit card for ONE DAY and am already done with this bank. You cannot see pending transactions online or on HSBCUS . This is important especially for those of us who travel a lot. We need to be able to see the pending transactions. As it stands now, HSBC does not display the transaction until the merchant has paid. This could take anywhere from 3 to 7 business days. Not good HSBC, not for a global bank like yourself. The funny thing is the available balance reflects the debit but you can’t see who the pending charges are from or the amounts of each one. I certainly don’t wanna be in another country to find out that something I charge three days ago was incorrect and now I’m gone and I can’t do anything about it. Also, HSBCUS is TERRIBLE. It’s very limited, unlike every other bank I’ve ever used you can’t lock or freeze your debit card, you have to call the one 800 number in order to do that. Stupid stupid stupid. I’ve called the one 800 number and it takes 30 minutes to get a hold of a representative. Well, sorry, if I need to stop my debit card I don’t want to be on hold for 30 minute. I don’t have time for that. I’m still very disappointed because I was excited to have this bank. Going to look at Capital One 360.

HSBCUS takes several steps just to log in if you haven’t set up Face ID, which it conveniently forgets every few weeks so you need to set it up again. And then once you’re in HSBCUS , you can’t do anything of any value!! You cannot pay your bill, you can’t see you Current Balance - only charges that have cleared the bank which can take 7-10 business days; you can’t dispute a charge if someone stole your identity, you can’t freeze your card if you lost it or your wallet was stolen. It’s basically the most complicated way to see your statement from last month.

Customer service is useless, it takes forever on hold, you can barely understand the representative, and they can’t tell you what your pending charges are or your current balance either; they tell you they have to “clear the bank from the merchant side which can take 7-10 business days”
No Other banking institution has this problem - I have cards with CITI, Discover and Chase; all of which have amazing apps. I was duped into getting a HSBC card b/c they offer 23 month 0% APR and I just bought a house so I thought it would be a great way to get settled and not have to pay interest for my first 2 years. Should have known it was too good to be true.
The hassle is not worth it, I have paid my balance and I’m closing this account.

I enjoy the ease and convenience of HSBCUS overall. However, I continue to struggle with the check deposit feature. I follow all suggestions of having a dark background, using the flash, etc. On my phone the image of the check to be deposited is clear and within the boundaries but often I get a message saying the check is unreadable and have to try multiple times (at times in the 20s and 40s) to get a successful deposit. It’s very frustrating. There isn’t an HSBC near me and with the pandemic this is a feature I need to be able to rely on.

I opened a credit card with HSBC. The process of signing up was much more complicated than any other card experience. I thought that might actually be evidence of more care taken around credit lines, which would be good. However, after jumping through hoops to install the correct version of HSBCUS (two false starts directed from the welcome emails for my card!) I discover now that it’s impossible to make credit card payments from HSBCUS ! This is 2020. The HSBC banking systems are totally out of date and unfit for contemporary purpose. Every other line of credit I know has sorted this out by now. For a company the size of HSBC it’s beyond poor. Worse, if you try to pay via mobile browser (Safari latest for iPhone) that’s also impossible. The site is not mobile responsive. And you can’t access the relevant area of the site. There are no warnings given. Just every time you try to enter the ‘Payments’ section you’re *helpfully* taken to customer service to learn about all the ways HSBC will apparently help you. Reader, they may not... The worst experience I’ve had in ages of bulky lumbering corporate process when what’s required is a fresh start. Please fix this, HSBC. I regret deeply choosing you to bank with.

Check deposit feature is maddening! It regularly does not recognize machine printed checks and I often have to try many times (10 or more) before it works. You might wonder why I persist, but this is still preferable to going to the bank because HSBC has closed my branch.

Also, unlike on the website, you cannot see future dated checks on HSBCUS . How hard would it be to add this simple feature to HSBCUS ? This reduces the value of HSBCUS since I still need to go to the website. So I do all mobile banking other than check deposit on the website.

While I’m at it, the bill payee feature on the website is maddening because you can’t change the address on a payee. You have to delete the address and add the payee back on with the new address. Also, if you have to leave the bill payee section for any reason (e.g. to verify the amount of a new payment), you get bounced out of the section and have to start a bill payee transaction from scratch.

As a victim of the recent Citizens Bank sell off, we had to reestablish our Premier account. Went to deposit checks via HSBCUS , it immediately suspended our online access. Next, there was a fraud hold put on our accounts for a DEPOSIT. Then, HSBC said that one check deposit (to savings) was refused and therefore they locked all of our accounts on a fraud hold (our other bank said that it had not even been submitted).
Next day, all checks cleared and showed available funds in the account (even extra electronic deposits) - account still on a fraud hold FOR A DEPOSIT from this specific deposit on the mobile app.
TODAY, no one can explain why our accounts are on a fraud hold for MOBILE APP DEPOSITS that are uncontested. Clearly, IT IS HSBCUS because that is the only thing they can reference too.
Advice for HSBC, fix HSBCUS and rethink about locking accounts on a deposit. Basically, every other bank just withholds the funds from being available.

Your mobile deposit system is terrible. It does not allow me to deposit my own or others’ personal checks. Your app tells me it can’t red the bottom numbers- which other banks always accept. I tried twice with your telling me the check was not taken. I then went to Wells Fargo and deposited the check. Then the next day I saw that you DID take the check ! This mixup caused me time on the phone with your agents. I was told my check was accepted. Today I find out it was Miranda you deducted the money from my account. I plan on leaving HSBC after Xmas. Your app needs work!!! I was told you are working on your problem. Fix it! If you cannot, hire people from Wells Fargo: they have done it for their bank.

ADDED: I have tried all your suggestions . No good. I can deposit only cashiers checks that I have to go to Wells Fargo to get. What a nuisance. Get some tech guys from Wells Fargo: their mobile deposit takes all check. Maybe they can show you how to do that.

Terrible functions that always fail to work. Crashes a lot while signed on, unable to sign on, with basic functions such as deposit or transfer not working. Check photo for deposit - when it’s working - often requires many trials - no helpful features like light or image sharpening which other banks mobile aps have. Really the worst ap I have on phone to have during a pandemic when branches are closed and phone service extremely limited. They really need to step up their mobile and online game.

And 2 days later someone responded to me with how to trouble shoot ie how to take photos of the check. I appreciate the tips. But I have tried them all and have also send a concerning email and participated in chat - where agent admitted said that they know of the problem and is working on it. Doesn’t change things. Only solution was to open up another bank account - like TD and Chase - where the same checks were accepted without a glitch.

HSBC needs to let me see my pending transactions and returns made on my HSBC checking account I know the features that should be added is where you can report you card or lock your card if it’s stolen misplaced or lost so if you find it you can unlock your card also I think HSBCUS should let you open additional accounts instead of calling in all the time or stepping into a branch I also think that instead of a overdraft credit account the bank should let Custumers overdraft it instead of custumers running their credit just to overdraft that’s crazy also I think HSBCUS should enable us to place a stop on checks if someone wasn’t authorized to do it and I also think there should be a feature where we can add our cards to Apple Pay or google pay without having the card because with this bank we have to wait until we get the card which is unacceptable I want HSBCUS to be better and have all of the things I’m asking for in a app

I reserve judgement of the basic user interface as it is going to take time to get used to it. It is definitely not an immediately apparent improvement over the older app. The big problem is the cheque processing. It took me several attempts to process two out of three cheques with complaints of trying to submit the same cheque again and the cheques not being readable. The third cheque refused to process. The format of the cheque is a little narrower than normal and the software just keep telling me to ‘fill the window’. If you fill the window in the top to bottom direction it complains that there are bit missing as the left to right is bigger than will fit in the target.
I never had these problems with the old app.
If HSBC want to see what an iPhone banking app should look like they should look at Bank of America. HSBC developers have a very long way to go to catch up.

I opened the high yield HSBC direct savings account for the 2% APY. First of all their app is very substandard compared to other banking apps. You can't even do ACH transfers in their app. Then as soon as I opened my account I get an email 3 days later the APY is dropping to 1.85%. The nail in the coffin was when they told me I can't add a POD person to my account. This is absolutely unacceptable in 2020. I then called HSBC and asked them to cancel the ACH transfer that I scheduled to fund my account that hadn't gone through yet. They assured me they cancelled it but two days later they completed the ACH transfer anyways. I called them and their call center is definitely not US based and the wait time was long. It took 4 days before they finally reversed the ACH transfer that they told me they had cancelled. And to make matters worse I can't even close my account because they said I'll get a $25 fine if I close it before 6 months... Absolutely unacceptable in the year of 2020. I switched to the Capital One 360 Savings which so far has been good.

You can setup transfers and you can set them up to be sent at a later date. But then you can’t see them. Its like they never existed until the date the transfer happens.

You’re already interacting with the API to create new transfers. Why not create a view for all pending and completed transfers? The problem is, if one person on the account sets up a payment, expecting a certain balance on a certain date, and then another person (or even the same person) doesn’t know/remember about that transfer, or it’s precise amount, then they might make other transfers that could cause an over draft. The whole point of HSBCUS is to do all my banking from there. I shouldn’t have to get on the the computer just to check whether there are some pending transactions. The current behavior is basically a write only behavior which is asinine. I would understand a read only behavior. But if you are going to be able to write, you gotta be able to read.

HSBCUS is glitchy and doesn’t allow me to pay my credit card bill. When I click “Manage Card,” to get to the payment page I only get a blank white screen. Looking at the other recent reviews, I can see that a lot of other users have this problem also.

This issue has persisted for 2+ months now. Every month, I keep updating HSBCUS to the newest version for the “bug fixes” they promise but this problem never gets fixed! This is extremely frustrating as the purpose of having a mobile banking app is for the convenience of being able to manage and pay my credit card on my phone instead of having to open up my computer.

I’ve already tried to chat with Customer support on HSBCUS but they’re not helpful and take hours to respond to my message. Please look into this problem and fix it. This is such a critical element of HSBCUS !!!!

There is a section “move money”, but I only a have HSBC credit card, and don’t have a debit card, I have my debit card with local bank, so each month I have to go to web site from my laptop to pay a bill for credit card, since mobile app doesn’t let me do it. I don’t understand how come, I can not use any option in move money if I only have a credit card with hsbc. So the application allows me see my transactions and statements, but once a month I still need to go website and pay bill over-there. I regret that I applied for this credit card, hooked for mail promotion I wasn’t expect that each month I need to do extra things, closing this credit card will hurt my credit history so I trapped. Please make it possible to pay my HSBC credit card bill to pay with mobile app and add my debit card from another bank.

I receive payroll checks monthly and they are standard business size. HSBCUS won’t rcognice this size. It either tells me to fill the window, in which case the portions of the check get excluded and it won’t take a picture or if I pull away so the entire check is readable it tells me to fill the window. I’ve never had this problem with any other banking app. One of the key features of mobile banking is to be able to electonically deposit checks - the HSBC app fails miserably at this. IT development team needs to look at any banking app, Chase, BofA, Wells Fargo, even my small independent bank in Virginia gets this right. As I am outside the US frequently this is a highly annoying and inconvenient glitch.
The other functions of HSBCUS work well, but the check feature needs immediate fixing.

I budget my real money weekly. I was attracted to this bank because of its superior savings rates (which is the only reason I gave 2 stars). I can’t imagine a bigger pain in the rear to transfer the “left over” money from my weekly budget from my checking account to this savings account. HSBCUS doesn’t even acknowledge that I have an external checking account linked, so the Move Money feature only displays my HSBC Savings account. I have to open up my browser, log into the website and even then it’s not as simple as transferring money in the transfer menu. I have to dig through redundant sections to finally get to a drop down menu that displays my linked checking account. What’s the point of HSBCUS if I can’t open it up and transfer money from my checking account to this savings account with ease?

Right from the start when this new app appeared it did not reliably read checks for mobile deposit. In fact, I continued to use the old app as long as they let me, because it was always able to read the check. But now they’ve eliminated the old app and it is infuriating. Sometimes, if I try multiple times to deposit a check over several days it will eventually accept it. But now it has stopped working completely. I get an error message that it cannot read the check. I have complained repeatedly to customer service ever since they introduced the new app about six months ago, and they tell me they are working on it, but to no avail. I was told to delete and reinstall HSBCUS , and it makes no difference. This incompetence from a major bank is truly breathtaking.

App is absolutely useless. You can see transactions you made right away. It takes couple of days to see them. More then often app doesn’t work. I can’t make payment trough HSBCUS . Need to go on a desktop computer do so. Very inconvenient. Bank itself is horrible. Had fraudulent transaction on my card and had to call 800 number. Waited 30 min and person with very very heavy accent answered. I couldn’t understand half of the things he saying and on a top of it his microphone was not working properly and call was very static. At the end I saw partial return to my card from the transaction MONTH later!!!!!!!! Now have to call and go trough all of this again!!! Horrible customer service. Maybe this was ok in 2000 but not 2020. There are plenty other banks with good customer service and advanced system.

I’ve been using the HSBC app since it became available & every time there’s an update I have a problem getting HSBCUS to work. I spend more time with the HSBC Premier team on the phone & nothing helps. Just an hour ago, I wanted to deposit a check on HSBCUS & it’s not working. The rep on the phone asked if she can call me back in 2 hours, after she checks if there’s a problem with the system. When I offered to delete & reinstate HSBCUS , she said it wasn’t necessary, but either way, I can’t deposit my check on HSBCUS & need the funds this week!

New app’s check deposit is so difficult to use. Camera doesn’t take pictures well. Need to try so many times to take perfect pictures. Even pictures were taken, HSBCUS doesn’t accept the deposit. The first time this poor camera problem occurred, I called HSBC. The representative said that my signature was not on the line which supposed to be. That was the reason why HSBCUS didn’t accept a check. So this time, I tried to sign on the line. But it didn’t work. She also said you can go to ATM to deposit a check. We use cellphone app to deposit because convenient, because we don’t want to go to ATM. I got tired of dealing with it, so I deposited the check to other bank without any problems! Also old app had deposit history, new one doesn’t have it!

The previous iteration of HSBCUS was unusable. I wasn’t even able to login and had to figure out ways to login.

The new app looks way better and I can at least look at my balances and do basic stuff. Still HSBCUS is light years behind some of the big banks like even Bank of America, Chase and other newer banks.

UI can still look better than it looks right now.

The only reason I’m writing this review is because they said “we always listen to feedback” in the “what’s new” section.

Well, no one ever asked me about my feedback from HSBC, so here it is unsolicited. HSBCUS used to be probably the worst designed app on my phone. It got the work done but was unattractive and not user friendly, like it was built by amateurs in a hurry. The new one is a little better looking but too much of arcane security measures are there and I don’t feel like I know what’s going on with my accounts.

Also, I supposedly have a credit card with them but I have no idea where that information is located. For certain their “rewards” must be posted on a bulletin board in their lunch room and I have NO IDEA what they are, my points accumulated, etc... my solution? I don’t use it. I use another card with an app that works.

HSBCUS is hideous. As many others said, it is an improvement from the previous one, but HSBC’s app continues to miss essential features. Everything feels pieced together rather than programming an inclusive app. You cannot pay your statement balance from HSBCUS . HSBCUS doesn’t show your bank account details. Problem might be that even the web based page reroutes you to an 90s looking web page where you can pay. Nothing is integrated. Therefore, just 1 star. Receiving statement credits as part of the cash back program is not much better. You can only “order” fixed packages. You have to check out your cart, etc. it is validating your shipping address?! For a statement credit? I am not shopping at Target - I simply want the amount to be credited.

So bad, that I reverted to accessing my online banking through Safari instead of HSBCUS . In 2019. On HSBCUS , My Accounts never show up on first login, just a blank page. Transactions are not showing in the same order as the online banking statement. And what happened to the scrolling? I can scroll down like on any app, but the moment I scroll back up, the whole screen shifts to the ledger balance, when all I wanted was to check out the transaction I just scrolled past. Don’t try to re-invent the wheel HSBC, fix the scrolling to the way a regular app would. Imagine if every time you scrolled up on your Instagram, it scrolled all the way back up to your stories. Every. Time. Annoying right? Never wanted to move to another bank more in my life after this “update”

I was forced to delete my old app and download the new app. After trying several times to login I was given an error message of ‘Service Unavailable’. I called the customer service number on the back of my card. I spent 30 mins on the phone with a CSR who had me delete and re-download HSBCUS 3x and it still didn’t work. She checked with another colleague. They informed her that some iPhone users were not able to use HSBCUS and they were working on the problem. She told me to wait an hour and then try again. I’ve waited 24hrs and it still doesn’t work. At this point I have no choice but to use the website to login. Thanks HSBC. You never disappoint when it comes to disappointing.

Oh cool. I need to deposit a check because there’s no branch anywhere for 200 miles? I can use HSBCUS to deposit checks? Sweet. Nope. Error message after error message. Call customer service number. These poor people have to deal mad customers. They have suggestions, yeah, “don’t write anything in the memo portion of the check.” Get new check, no memo. Same error. Finally made it to a branch. Teller says, “It might be because the check is grey.” What?! Useless depositing tips. Do this, do that... hold still, black background, plenty of light, press camera button. Never had a problem with the old app with an older phone, older camera. Sad I have to switch banks... this is laughably useless.

I log into the old app, I get asked to download the new one from HSBCUS Store (not sure why you can’t figure out how to just push an update like every other app in the world) but ok.... new app downloaded it prompts me to push a button to transfer all my security settings from the old app, “great” I think.... then I get a safari page open saying “access denied” and I can’t get past that. Just a terrible terrible user experience which has been the case with both online and mobile platform for HSBC US. As a UK ex-pat living I the US and a long time HSBC customer it’s really disappointing to see the gap in US digital experience vs. UK. This is the last straw, I will now begin the process of moving banks.

Depositing checks is much more difficult than with the old app, especially if they are large sized. I tried to deposit one large check and HSBCUS froze and then told me I had already deposited it and refused to accept the check for 3 days. After downloading HSBCUS it asks if I want to transfer my security settings from the old app but a dead web page opens up when I push the button to transfer. The Home screen does not display account balances like the old app does, and the old menu options appear to be well hidden. The fingerprint password setup is incomprehensible. I gave up. Compare your app to the PenFed credit union that makes things so easy. Yours is terrible!

I’ve spent over an hour attempting to activate my iPhone 11 Max Pro mobile device (in order to use a Face ID), and errors abound. You are instructed to call Customer Service, but after significant wait times, the calls get disconnected. I’ve tried calling 3 times. I’ve also tried chatting in HSBCUS for assistance, which gets disconnected if you follow their instructions. One error that needs to be fixed is the generation of the mobile passcode, which take longer to deliver than the time allotted to you to enter it. 1 hour, 3 calls, and 2 chats later, my phone still cannot be linked. Shameful.

I was so excited to see the update for HSBC USA app but it asked me to download separate app from AppStore ?? Then asked me to switch from my old app to new app. I follow the prompt but it didn’t work I keep getting error message so I tried to log in to the new app and still unable to log in because it keep asking to switch device to this device so I was confuse because i only have one phone and never install HSBCUS on other phone. Still need a lot of improvement. I hate their old app but hate this one even more *sign*. I tried to call them for help but they said they don’t have a clue what I was talking about