The last straw..

I have not had much luck with my HSBC Maestro Debit card, never works on a Sunday evening (reliably and predictably so) and they seem to have an ATM balance that is a few days out on my current account balance so immediate fund transfers take a few days to go through their system, balance on line is fine, balance at ATM is always a few days behind... cleared funds too, from one HSBC account to another...

Anyway to cut a long story short, they have ditched Maestro and , on their own initiative ordered me a Visa Debit card to replace mine. I find this out the hard way at Gatwick last night when my Maestro card was reported as stolen at the Car Rental counter, and on a watch list, they told me they had to cut it up... So midnight, cant get the rental car, will probably lose the money I paid, card wont work in the ATM so cant get cash for a taxi, had to phone a friend to drive an hour to pick me up...(I have never had , never needed, will never want a credit card... my mistake after 20 years apparently) ...am now in the UK for a dentist appointment that I cant pay for, cant get any cash out of the ATM's and my account manager wont speak to me personally because my balance is less than £70K. Over an hour speaking to their Singapore helpdesk, and we all know what overseas based help desks are like.


Such a helpful bank, It will take 7-10 days for my new card to arrive, to my UK address, so will have to fly back again to get it.
Swiss Staff Maestro card is not very popular here and everyone refusing it. I made the mistake of transferring most of my first pay cheque balance to my HSBC account to do xmas shopping whilst here so its not much good at the ATM either... Sorry kids, going to be a little lite on presents this year.

I guess the lesson to learn is always carry a backup card with a useable limit, even if you never intend to use it, make sure you carry plenty of cash and change banks. HSBC have consistently let me down.

<RANT MODE OFF>

sorry to hear about your problems.

I love my HSBC account, unfortunately I don't have anywhere to get in-person service around here.

When I 'lost' my MBNA mastercard, they fedEXd me a new one over night. Very impressed with that sevice since I didn't even want to use it here.

Do you actually plan these things or they just happen?

It was just one bad day... read my on Europecar lol...

Maybe it was karma... I still feel they should have told me they cancelled my card, and that they had ordered me a replacement Visa Debit, and that they mistakenly listed my card as stolen... One thing I am not is psychic

Funny... I do have an account with First Direct/HSBC and when they switched Maestro with Visa Debit... It arrived at my home address in good time, no probs at all, smooth transition... I thought they did it out of vengence as I had applied for UBS Maestro. Only downside is my daily withdrawl limit on new Visa Debit is lower than what I had before. .. Dont reallyneed it so didnt really ask for a review.

BTW... I hope you did'nt start of with your Quantum Card philosophy... "I lost my card somewhere, nobody was there to witness it. So did I actually lose my card or not?"

Surely, as a quantum buddhist, you are much much more than merely "psychic"
.

Whats the equivalent of flaggelation or pennance for noobie forum posters that made an arse of themselves ?

I shall deal with this in another Universe...

Seems a lot of banks are moving to visa debit. RBS sent me a visa debit as well. I'm still using the Maestro because I like the silver better though

God of EF is very Unforgiving

You mean another thread.. ?

but at least your email address is safe with them.

Keep 'em coming...

Did you file a complain against HSBC Maestro for breach of Data Protection, for passing on your details to Visa?

It's not going to go away is it ?

Give it time your red blobbies are slowly creeping down.

It will... eventually

Dont take me seriously (nobody does actually), Im just messing with you being bored... need to pick on someone and you seem like a ripe harvest for rich pickings

Maybe, in another waveform...

I guess a lot depends on what inner secrets the LMC
(Large Monk Collider) reveals to us...
.

Becareful whom you offend mate, he might come back as YOU in his next life

I feel some Baldrick front line poetry coming on...

Boom Boom Boom....

We can be forgiving. Based on the amount of beer you buy us at the next Talacker Night.

Welcome back and too bad about HSBC. Clearly their advertising re being the local bank didn't take into account spooky actions at a distance.