I moved to HK a year before my family, therefore when I set up our HSBC account it was set up as sole account. In my family my wife takes care of paying bills, writing checks, online banking etc. Therefore when she moved over we naturally wanted to have her name added to the account so that she could do the bank related tasks for our HSBC account.
We were told that we had to convert my sole account into a joint account and in order to do so we would both need to go into the HSBC branch where the account was set up in Kwai Fong. Fair enough, so a couple of months ago we spent an hour in the branch signing documents, letting them take copy's of our IDs, doing everything necessary to convert our account.
At the end of the meeting we were told it is OK for my wife to write checks and when our other ATM card was ready they would notify us and we would have to come to the branch to collect. Well for a few months now my wife has been doing all of the banking matters including writing checks, online transfers, ATM withdrawal, but we were never notified about our ATM card being ready for pick up.
No big deal though, because whenever I need cash I just have my wife get some money through the ATM and hand cash off to me. However, I would like to have my own ATM card so I don't have to go through my wife to get cash. Today I decided to go in the bank to see what was going on.
Long story short, after about 1 hour I found that the other ATM card was not available for pick up. Why? Because they show that my account is still a sole account. They asked when my wife and I came in to switch to a joint account. I told them and even showed the desk we sat at when we signed all of the documents.
The conclusion was even though my wife and I took time from our busy schedules to do what was necessary to convert our accounts it was though it never happened and we need to go back down there and do it again. Now that I know my wife was never offically put on the account I wonder why nobody has ever mentioned that none of the checks that have been written for my account for the past months are not my signature.
Oh, well. All I could do was laugh and figure a time for my wife and I to go down there together to repeat the process. FUN FUN FUN. I have heard HSBC has there stuff together, but I have been having bad luck with them. I would switch banks, but just too much of a hassle. Will just keep rolling with the punches in nobody knows anything land.
Anyway just wanting to vent. God bless you if you took the time to read this long rant of a post.