The economy is really bad, and it seems that banks are robbing consumers’ money whenever possible. I would like to share with you my personal story, hoping that you can make the public aware of this issue. I have a checking account in HSBC France and in HSBC US respectively. I made a wire transfer of 7500 euros from France to the US last Friday (March 13 2009), and the money arrived on March 18, with only 9477.75 dollars (I sent the money in euro, so the change was made in the US). However, Wednesday’s market rate was 1 euro=1.35 dollars. So normally I should have had around 10125 dollars (that’s what they told me on Wednesday, saying that they would contact their wire transfer team to know why there is a short of 600 dollars). They called me yesterday, giving me another answer: the amount in dollars was calculated according to the date where wire transfer was initiated, i.e. Monday. However, Monday’s market rate was 1 euro=1.29 dollars, so even according to Monday’s rate, I should still have had 9675 dollars, rather than 9477.75 dollars. They said then that they have their own rate (which was 1:1,23 on Monday), and don’t refer to the market rate. However, there is no way for us to check their rate on line. Besides, on their website, in the section “foreign exchange”, they put “FX calculator”, which is the market rate. But when clients really make a wire transfer, they give us another rate, which is not available on line, and we have no access to it. I check the market rate every day, and 1 euro:1.23 dollar is unheard of!
The rate is so opaque and they can give us any rate they want during wire transfer processes. HSBC is the world’s largest bank group, and it’s hard to believe that they are so opaque when dealing with wire transfers. My impression is that they are making money in giving bad rate (which is not available on line) to customers.
I am sure that I am not the only victim of wire transfer conflicts. When I search on Google, it proves that there are lots of complaints alike. I think that a report on wire transfer issue would draw public’s attention on this, and there would be something to discover: money is tight in banks currently, and they try to make money whenever possible.
Read Next Complaint >>
