I've been a client of over 10 banks for all kinds of things for the last 25 years. Personal accounts, business accounts, credit cards, loans. I've banked on 3 continents in that time, too.

For the last five years I've been a HSBC Mexico customer and never did I have a worse banking experience.

There, that's the thought and opinion, and here's why.

I'm not entirely sure of the order things that happened or the time in between events, but that aside. All of these things, and probably more, happened in the last 4-5 years. More or less in the order as written.

When I first opened the account, I wanted a regular boring checking account. Immediately they cocked up the first transfer. The money I deposited into the new balance disappeared and it turned out that receiving more than 'vaguely nondescript limit' on a new account was not allowed, despite them saying there were no limits.

Turned out they deleted my account without notice. Or, more likely, the branch never registered the account properly with the main system or whatever.

They fixed it 2 days later, when I complained about not being able to access my balance and my card not working. But what the fuck?!

Several months later, I got mysteriously upgraded to a Premium account. Didn't ask for that, didn't care for it at the time. But higher card limits and priority, better service is fine with me. But isn't that something you notify your customer about? I didn't open a premium account...

But whatever. Premium is good.

For a while things were OK. And I moved to the other side of Mexico and all seemed fine. Then came the time to move again and I figured I'd go to the nearest branch and update all my stuff. The new address, my new Mexican ID card, which had been converted into a permanent resident card by now. Things like that.

The representative there updated all my data, happy with me taking that initiative and promptly my account got blocked for doing something unusual.

Yes, updating account details counts as unusual activity and is a problem apparently. They fixed it the next day, when I complained. But what the fuck!?

A couple of months, maybe a year, later my card got skimmed, or the card number stolen from booking.com or something, I'm not sure. Multiple purchases were made in the USA, Canada, places in Mexico I clearly never visited. And HSBC did nothing. Their fraud detector did not work.

They fixed it 4 days later, when I told them something was wrong. But again, what the fuck!??

It took 6 weeks and 2 visits to the local branch to get my money back.

In the meantime, armed with my new card I then made a purchase, groceries or something, in the city I live in. And had been living in for the past year with their knowledge and promptly my account got blocked for making illegal and fraudulent purchases. Never mind the thousands of euros that got stolen the week before, 50 bucks of groceries is what sets off their alarms.

They fixed that the next day, when I complained. But once again, what the fuck!??

When I went on the offensive and engaged HSBC about their crap service, failing security systems and basically told them they sucked. The representative stopped responding and told me to leave, saying something along the lines of, "If you can't appreciate my service, then we're done talking. Please leave!"

His service being, unblocking the account HSBC blocked for no reason. While failing to detect the actual fraudulent purchases the week before. Which of-course pissed me off immensely.

Then came the time to replace my Passport, which I did in March of 2025. Somewhere in April I was at the branch for yet another problem with my account, I don't even remember what. But I needed to show some ID. Which I did with my new passport, a for them unknown document. Still, it has my photo and social security number on it. And other than the document number and issuing location it is identical to the one they had on file. I also showed my Mexican ID, which they have on file, and my drivers license. Plus the guy knew me from last time.

So they knew for sure it was me. But, you guessed it, once again I was locked out from my money for "security reasons." Or in other words for showing up with up-to-date documentation.

This took a day to sort out and came with the unkind suggestion that it probably keeps happening because I'm a foreigner without a Mexican voters ID. Having a voter ID would make all these issues magically disappear. To which I replied something like, "Stop treating foreigners like criminals and don't block accounts for ordinary stuff."

I was promptly shunned for being frustrated.

Mind you, I'm not Mexican and can not even have a voters ID. They know that foreigners can't have such a card, so it was a immensely stupid thing to say.

A few months later I finally figured out how their banking investment scheme works and with their advice I put a bunch of money into an investing account. Just a simple thing that pays out weekly dividends over the money I store in it. This would be a simple procedure, would take no time at all and would be great for me.

Fine, you had me at free money... Do your magic.

It took three hours, several phone calls to the branch where I opened the account and hadn't been to in years. Because, what does that have to do with current events. The branch I was in needed to get some kind of approval, because reasons. Lots of waiting, idle talk and promises of huge riches, upselling for insurance for a car and house I don't own, I should get life insurance too. But finally the approval finally came, and after transferring some of my money it promptly disappeared without explanation. Gone from my checking account, and it didn't appear at the other end. All I got was a vague promise that it would appear in my investment thing the next day.

This happened a bit quicker than promised. But until that time I was logging in every hour to see if my money would be visible. Not a good experience.

Right before leaving on a large travel adventure my digital credit card got blocked, because suddenly Booking.com decided to be a little bitch about things. But HSBC assured me everything was fine and I was the idiot. The card has no limits apparently. Turns out that not every e-commerce site accepts their digital cards.

How convenient and premium! Safe too, thanks HSBC for making me use my 'real' card online again. The very thing their digital cards are supposed to fix.

Then my physical card got skimmed or stolen again a few weeks later. And again their fraud detector system did nothing and I had to initiate action myself. Unfortunately for me I was traveling by now and being far from my branch, you can probably imagine how frustrating and scary it is to be without money in a strange city. Plus, knowing HSBC, having to go to an unknown branch for such a thing probably would be a problem too.

It wasn't. Not really. But they did manage to fuck this up too.

The first branch I went to made me wait for 30 minutes before the power went out and they locked the door, locking everyone inside. I was told to wait for it to come back on at first but I quickly gave up and went to the other branch.

Arriving there, I was made to wait another hour or so because Premium clients get priority service of-course. And finally got a new card, which took like 3 to 4 hours overall. This time was mostly spent waiting standing in the doorway of the branch and in the phone queue with their fraud police or whatever it's called. After repeating myself several times into a barely audible phone to make the report and highlight the transactions. All while the bank representative on the other side of the desk was doing whatever. Joking with colleagues, some furious typing into her computer. Turns out she was checking up on my account status and preparing for the issuing of my new card.

Actually, the service then got so premium that I got a wrong card first, then I got a proper replacement. And nobody seemed to care.

Two weeks later I somehow got my money back. Quicker than last time and no need to chase after it. Nice!

More recently, I have once again moved to a new city. Today I went to update my details like the new address and such, just to let them know. Be the nice customer. And again they didn't recognize my passport and Mexican ID. The thing the rep showed me as "current" was my 4 years expired ID, the one I used to open the account. Assuring me they had no idea about any other IDs. Certainly not the one he was holding, the one I gave them 18 months ago.

My frustration once again was not appreciated and shoved aside in a manner as if to say, "You probably never updated your documents. Why else wouldn't we know about it?"

They also wouldn't accept my new Tax ID, because only one change per day on an account is allowed, the address change. And I was told to come back the next day for the Tax thing. As if I have nothing better to do.

The representative then proceeded to update my mom's account with the same 2 changes, the new address and her Tax ID. Apparently her non-premium account can handle 2 changes per day.

We walked out today feeling completely frustrated once again. Thinking out loud, "What the fuck!?"

We then and there decided to get rid of HSBC.

What a lousy shitty bank.