I opened up my HSBC current account around 7 years ago now and have never really had any problems with the service received.

Right from the beginning my experience was straight forward, I applied for my new account over the phone which took around 15minutes to pass all my details over. I then had to pop in to my nearest branch with my proof of ID and Address and it was then only a few days before I received my new debit card and paying in book.

Although in the early days I didn't really use my account much, over the years It has been a service which I couldn't have been without. Having reguarly lost my debit card during drunken antics or just been generally careless I have had to make endless calls to HSBC customer services for replacements.

On such occassion's I have managed to get through to a representative within a minute or so and was dealt with efficiently and professionally and I can say the same for when dealing with staff within my branch aswell.

There were two occassion's where payments had been made from my account which I did not authorise on the once occassion the payment was stopped immediately and the funds returned to my account within 10minutes, on the other the payment had already left and I received a £20 compensation payment for the inconvenience caused.

I feel that HSBC are a company who are dedicated to supporting each of their customers to their specific requirements and are often open to compromise in difficult situations.

Another aspect of HSBC which has made my banking experiences smooth is the Internet Banking platform where you can do just about anything within a couple of clicks.
Having started up business's and making regular standing order and direct debit payments it has been useful for me to monitor my funds in realtime and be able to make payments as and when required.