I have to agree with the nay sayers HSBC DUBAI is one of the No actually the worst bank I have ever used. The phone service is terrible it is impossible to ask a question without being sent to multiple people with long waits in between and having to give all your identifying details each time - the result typically is after a long wait to be disconnected mysteriously before receiving the answer to your question if you are persistent you may actually reach someone who will tell you to go into a branch and inquire. If you go into a branch they often tell you they don't have the forms needed to make an inquiry or change a service and that you will need to locate those online and mail them somewhere. UGH! Their response to unhelpful phone service is to have a 'premium account personal banker' LAUGH! La dee da I actually have one of those and apparently he's been on vacation for the past year and he doesn't return calls. I agree with the numerous posters above charges are definitely suss I am continually getting charged 100 to 150 dhs with various descriptors on statements that cannot be explained by HSBC representatives. I and a number of my co-workers also using HSBC were surprised to discover that our credit card interest has simply been increased without notice during this time and one co-worker's credit limit was halved because he paid of the credit card each month and left no balance. I was referred to the bank when I arrived in Dubai by my employer about 4 years ago and took out a loan. I made the mistake of topping up the loan last year when it was almost paid off because HSBC was running a 'special' promotion with lower interest of 4.7% however for the last few months the interest has magically increased to 9.9% payments taken out immediately with salary installments but no one can explain why. In addition I was charged double for an ATM withdrawal last month -despite having the receipts showing that only one withdrawal was made and that I received a timed out message when attempting another it took 6 phone calls, downloading an online dispute form sending it in to an 'investigative body' and then waiting another 15 days a total of (23 days) before the money was credited back to my account which by the way was a large amount that overdrew my account and I was charged interest and over-limit fees for - still not cleared . I agree with the latest poster that it may actually be the region though and overall management practices in the banking industry however the sheer amount of inaccuracies in favor of banks suggests that the chaos will continue as the banks are profiting from it. Everyone in the UAE seems to have stories of mistreatment with their banks and long term residents simply shrug and say that bad banking and service is simply a given in the region. When I've asked for referrals people are never confident or satisfied with their own banks and will typically say I'm with so and so but have this issue or that with them. I tend to think that this nonchalant acceptance of being overcharged or accepting unexplained interest charges etc is why all these practices continue. I have to admit I'm guilty as well I continue to allow unclear charges monthly on HSBC statements to continue unexplained and will only go through the painful attempt at requesting refunds or reversals if the amount is large.Basically, if you are working full time it is somewhat impossible to regulate. HSBC will reverse things if I consistently bother them about it but they make it a time consuming painful, stressful and expensive process so as a customer you have to weigh whether the fee or overcharge amount is actually worth the effort to appeal it. If the majority of customers simply allow unexplained interest hikes, unexplained fees and charges and double charges on money transfers the bank makes a substantial profit . By making the application procedure to claim back charges difficult and phone calls unhelpful and branch timings hard to attend customers are literally lulled into accepting unethical practices and bogas charges Last year, I started looking for a new bank visited 3 called at least 2 more and was basically told by all that they would love my business and would have a sales representative call me. A month after making inquiries I grudgingly accepted that the problem was indeed perhaps endemic of the region as none of the 5 new banks had bothered to get back with me on my inquiries regarding their services and transferring my account despite contacting them all once again repeating my request of services available and a desire to move my account. This is odd when as overseas 'new customers' are usually signed up in a day thus I agreed on the 'top up' with HSBC (sigh) seeing no viable alternative. Rakbank was the only one to ever contact me but that took 35 days after my initial inquiries about their services and two days after deciding to take a loan and stick with HSBC. My husband who had been overseas was an HSBC supporter and a year ago said to me that I should stick with them as they were globally recognized however now that he's permanently in Dubai and has a Dubai Islamic account (required by his employer) he's changed his mind now that he is here and has witnessed first hand the service I receive he can't wait till I clear up this loan this year and switch accounts he has had none of the trouble I have and he can't believe there is no authority to appeal these charges . I truly hope he has found a good bank with reasonable services however I admit that after 4 years I am a bit jaded and suspect that he's simply in the honeymoon stage and wouldn't be surprised if he too suddenly as unexplained trumped charges to complain about with his bank in the near future. Regardless, I have another 6 months to observe his services before I am free to transfer from HSBC anyway which I will do because despite the bad service I hear from people about their banks I'm usually able to top their tales with the horrible service HSBC offers and now I know that any last minute great loan offers they might offer to persuade me to stay with them will only increase later unexplained.

HSBC did it again...

I have a platinum card issued by HSBC UAE last week. I could only use it for few days before i started getting a message "DO NOT HONOR" at few outlets. I called HSBC and strangely i found out that the card has been blocked. The system does not show any reason of blocking it. I was also not informed by anyone from the bank. After wasting many hours trying reaching the bank's call center i could not get a reason at all and was kept on getting a message that we are investigating. After three days today i was told that card has been blocked because no body updated their system internally as to the documents submitted by me. They admitted that its bank's fault and my card should not be blocked. But they DID it...

Due to the economic situation, sometime back I found myself with some rather delinquent credit cards, with one of those being a cincinnati reds credit card issued by HSBC (seperate from my original HSBC account). Unable to send full payment, I sent a token payment and informed them I would try if possible to send such payments until I was once again able to resume making regular payments. Needless to say, this was of course not satisfactory with the creditor. I have exhausted every other possibility I could think of with the only other choice being bankruptcy. A choice I would rather not make however, current circumstances may leave me no other alternative.

Many people have complained about this number but HSBC have confirmed to me it is one of theirs and uses an auto dialer.
It is a real nuisance and I have an email address for complaints. It is:
[email protected]
Please shoer them with complaints.

I'M SO DISGUSTING HOW CAN HSBC CAN HIRED PEOPLE WITH DRUG ISSUES AND ABUSED BEHAVIOR. I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION YOUR COMPANY IS A DRUG FREE ENVIRONMENT BUT TO MY SURPRISE THIS IS NOT THE CASE. NOBODY MONITORS THEIR EMPLOYEES AND THEIR ABUSE IN THE COMPANY. I BELIEVE THAT RANDOM DRUG TEST SHOULD BE DONE IN FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS LIKE YOURS.

PLEASE CHECK SPECIFIC INDIVIDUAL WORKING IN YOUR TAMPA FACILITIES: DANIEL WATKINS JR.