Reply To: The HSBC Premier Mastercards thread

[rum]

rum wrote:

OK, I finally got an answer after speaking to a fourth person (I’ve actually lost count!). Call lasted close to an hour. This is usually a five minute job on the phone to Amex and it’s pretty straight forward.

First I asked about whether they will be giving us another year free. Best answer I could get out of them was “it’s currently showing a cost of £0 but it could change”. It’s not like I was asking for the weather forecast in April, but felt like that’s how the answer was… it maybe, could be, should be, but possibly won’t be. Clear as mud.

Then the last person I spoke with all but confirmed I need to fill in a form and post it back to them. They suggested I do that nearer the time as they may be offering £0 annual fee then, to which I suggested I had better get the form and have it here just in case. I can then send it back nearer the time and won’t need to wait for it then. I then had to answer a bunch of questions (sounded like they were doing a credit check but then they assured me they weren’t…) and hear a bunch of legal blurb (why do they tell you this over the phone when you receive it all in the post anyway?).

Long story short, forms are being sent and I need to wait for them to arrive. I think it’s a good strategy as current times for the post = expected timeframe + 10 to 14 days on top of that for my area.

Received my “form” from HSBC as per my previous posts. What was in the package? A letter thanking me for my interest in their credit cards and a marketing brochure listing all their wonderful credit card products. No form whatsoever or anything that resembles it.

I can’t really say anything positive about HSBC right now… they are clearly still stuck a few centuries behind modern banking. Can’t upgrade/downgrade a product based on a simple online form (or a telephone call) and have to send out glossy brochures, rather than get people to use online banking. Despite the objections on here, I might not be wasting my time with these people much longer.

Is Barclays brining out a card then or what?