I spent a frustrating 45 minutes in HSBC's head office this morning trying to get a credit card cash advance. The trouble was, I wanted to draw out the total credit limit on the card. First I was told there was a maximum daily withdrawal limit on my card, which it turned out there wasn't.
That was merely irritating. What was infuriating is that the outstanding balance on the card had already been paid off in cash earlier the same morning. So, you might think, the entire credit limit would now be available. Not so. It appears that even though you pay cash into HSBC, it doesn't get credited to the card account until 9am the following day. So I'm there with the card and the pay-in slip proving it's been paid off, but that makes no difference.
So, if the money is no longer with me and not yet in the card account, where is it? Acting as a nice interest-free loan to HSBC for a day while they presumably sock me for another day's interest on the credit card, I suppose. And they wonder why so many people spell "bankers" with a W.
Trying to make sense of a weird world - and maybe make it a little better. If that's not possible, then laugh at it. Those with shorter attention spans may enjoy us on Twitter at Private Pebble.
2 comments:
Totally agree with you. In this age of online banking etc, you would think that if you settle payments, it is instant. When I transfer money locally online or when I'm actually at the bank, the transfer is immediate. Why this can't be done with credit cards is beyond me. You are probably correct with your assumption of them getting an extra days interest.
Another thing that irks me is that you can only transfer money to your credit card account between the hours of 9-8am for it to be credited the next day. Arghhhhh!!
it continually boggles my mind that in this "day and age of the Internet," HSBC has still not got around to allowing the use of the Internet -- and its timeliness and efficiency -- to actually run one's own banking and monetary concerns.
Can they explain, for instance, why it is that one can pay money to the bank online, transfer funds online, put money into gold and foreign currency accounts, etc. but still one cannot yet sign up for a new account, or extend balance limits and transfer limits etc, without first walking physically into a bank, signing eight pages of paper and sending them via mule to Lahore before being able to access the new funds?
First we are subjected to these hhorrible key devices to log in and now we are still not able to do unique banking transfers or one off transactions without having to show up physically "for our own safety ans security." I think we should just stick to stuffing notes into our jock straps.
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