HSBC Business Bank Account Review

Overall Rating

Business Direct Account is fee free. No costs to keep the account, and also free banking for 18 months.
Internet banking is great, you can set up different users and give them access to specific accounts and set up individual transaction limits.
I miss a visa/mastercard card to buy plane tickets, but if you are smart enough and you get your plane tickets on ebookers.com , they take maestro, and so my main problem is also solved.
Once I broke down the security device to access internet banking, and they sent me a new one immediately. I received in it in two days (I was outside the UK)
My company is UK based, and I live in another country, and guess what ? I have an HSBC branch here, 10 minutes from home, and I can take money without paying any transaction fee (I also have an HSBC plus account as personal account). If you are from a country, work in another and live in another.. this is the bank for you.

I have been with HSBC for about one year now.

I have been an HSBC business customer years ago also, around 2002 / 2003, up to 2005.

Even if I still did not make a big turnover, the staff has always been friendly with me.
Some examples ?

I have two cell phones with me, one for the UK and one for the country where I live, and usually they called me on the local one. It' something simple, but may be they try to avoid me paying roaming charges ?

Also they have set up for me an account in Euro and one in the eastern European currency I needed, so if I get some payments in this currency, I avoid the risk of currency fluctuation.

How many bank managers would go for a lunch with you if you have 14 pounds in your business account ? Somebody from HSBC did. In my country, Italy, they don't even talk to you if you have 18 euro (14 pounds more or less).

These are not details. I have been working for the most respected company in terms of customer care. Apple Computer, and I was a customer care agent, I was one of the best of the floor, and when I spoke to HSBC customer care, I felt like I was talking to somebody doing my job with the same attention.

I think that it's always up to the person, more than the company itself. I also think that everything depends on how you use your banking account. I never been overdrawn, even if I had sometimes 5 pounds, I was still over the zero.

It's easy to talk sh*** about banks, but at the end of the day, banks are businesses, and they do business to make money, exactly like me, and the whole point is understanding that a bank is not a box where you keep the money, but one of your main business instruments. If a business is not making money, is just a liability.

So far I have been with HSBC one way or the other from 2002, and I'm gonna stay.

(NO, I don't work for HSBC, but when I see so many people being disappointed with HSBC, i really do care about writing what my experience is)