Consumer complaint received 2018-12-26
Product: Checking or savings account — Savings account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem accessing account
Company: HSBC NORTH AMERICA HOLDINGS INC. (NY)

I am unable to access my HSBC Online deposit account. 

On XX/XX/2018, I opened an online deposit account with HSBC Personal Banking, an online only banking service, depositing a large sum into the account. 

For several days, the money did not appear in my account online, and when I inquired about this I was told that no such account existed at HSBC, but after some telephone calls to their customer service department the money appeared in the account, approximately one week after opening the account. 

Every day after that, I logged into the HSBC website ( us.hsbc.com ) to check my balance and see that the deposit was still there, and to check when interest was credited to the account. There was no problem until Saturday XX/XX/2018. That morning when I attempted to log in I reached a page that read XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX/There has been an error. Please contact us for assistance. 

I then clicked on the proffered link to a chatline help service and spent hours explaining the problem to a gentleman in XXXX XXXX ( where all the customer service staff appear to be located ). He told me there was a technical problem and I should contact HSBC the following Monday, as they did not work on Saturday. 

The same thing happened on Monday, except that this time I was told that the account had been blocked by the fraud prevention department. ( That day, I chatted online and spoke on the phone to more than one person in customer service. ) I pointed out that the only activity on my account was my depositing money in it and checking online to see that it was still there every day, so I could not understand what could possibly have led HSBC to block my online access to my account. 

I decided to call the local office of HSBC, but found that when I called the head office in XXXX, I got through to the same customer service staff in XXXX XXXX that I had been speaking to on the phone. 

I should add that each time I called HSBC customer service I had to wait for very long periods of time ( hours ), listening to music and announcements telling me that HSBC was unusually busy and that their staff were busy attending to other customers. 

In the end, I asked to be put through to the fraud prevention department. Each time this happened, I had to wait hours listening to music and announcements, and nobody ever answered the phone. There is no detectible queueing system at HSBC, so there is no way of knowing how many more hours one will have to wait. 

In the end, I talked to someone at HSBC customer service about this and insisted that I could not wait for days or weeks and would have to seek legal redress against HSBC for withholding my money illegally. At that, he promised to get the fraud prevention department to call me back within two hours. 

I eventually received a call from a lady in XXXX XXXX who turned out not to be from the fraud prevention department, so said she could not help me. When I explained ( for the umpteenth time ) what had led to her having been asked to call me, she said she would put me through to the fraud prevention department. I was than subjected to more hours of music and announcement, and no answer whatsoever from the fraud prevention department. 

I then completed a complaint form online and sent it to the State of New York Office of the Attorney Generals Bureau of Internet and Technology. They have now informed me that I should complain to CFPB, as they do not deal with banks. 

On XX/XX/2018 I received an email from HSBC which said, inter alia : As a valued HSBC customer, we want to make sure you have the most up to date information on your account. We're pleased to let you know that the Annual Percentage Yield ( APY ) on your HSBC Direct Savings account has increased to 2.05 % APY1 effective XX/XX/2018. This would indicate to me that my account may well remain intact, but as I have no way of accessing the account online, I have no way of confirming this. The contact information in the email, including the XXXX headquarters address and the customer service phone lines, are the same as those I used before : all of them lead to XXXX XXXX and endless music/announcements.