About two weeks later, we were astonished to find that, within a period of four days, we would receive the following from the bank:

1) A notification letter dated Feb 14 that the application has been approved;

2) A letter dated Feb 15 welcoming us to HSBC's 24-hour personal banking service (which we did not apply for, but apparently came with the facility);

3) An envelope containing two cheque books dated Feb 16, with no letter explaining what the cheque books are for and how to use them;

4) An envelope containing a debit card which we did not apply for (again, apparently it came with the facility), with a letter dated Feb 17;

5) A mailer dated Feb 17 containing the Personal Identification Number for the said debit card; and

6) A letter dated Feb 18 informing us that the fund transfer requested had been effected.

What took two weeks to approve in one simple application, took four days to effect in six separate mailers.

Surely in this age of modern technology, the various departments of the bank can work together to produce a thoughtful welcome pack containing all necessary details and information, without bombarding the customer with disjointed correspondences?

And, by the way, in all the letters, nothing was mentioned about the free gift promotion that came with the application.

Freda Chiang Yin (Ms)