The World’s Local Bank my arse # 2

I have blogged about how pointless HSBC’s The World’s Local Bank position is before but they have just confirmed that all it really means is that they don’t just rip you off at home, they can do it all over the world.

So part two goes something like this…

There is me thinking that I could quite easily open a bank account with HSBC in Australia seeing as I have been a customer with them for 12 years in the UK. No they tell me it isn’t that easy because we are on ‘different systems’. I would have to jump through stupid hoops and have X amount in the bank blah blah blah. It is irrelevant that I have an account with them already. So off I go to Westpac who make it a million times easier for anyone moving to the country to open a bank account so you can merely get paid and take it out.

However I am then left with deciding how do I pay my bills from the UK so I don’t have to fork out 20 quid every time I need to transfer money to pay them. Surely I can just go into HSBC in Australia and pay it into my UK account so I can pay my credit card bill, that is with HSBC I might add, after all they are the World’s Local Bank? No I am told, I will be charged the 20 quid because it is an ‘overseas transaction’. However, if I was a premium customer with 500,000 in the bank they would not charge me. One, do you think if I had that much in the bank I would worry about the charge and two, does banking with you for 12 years not make me important enough. Jokers! Apologies in advance if I ever work on this account in the future but surely anyone can see that the whole position means nothing is just not authentic in any way shape or form.