They used to allow applications from GB, then they started getting snotty at people who signed up and did the minimum to receive the reward payments. Then they stopped accepting applications from GB altogether.
It is a bit weird, especially for an international banking brand. I guess they are really just Northern Bank with a different name tho.
Danske bank actually sounds familiar and I’m from Northern Ireland so there was probably one in my town but didn’t think anything of it.
There was also the bank of Ireland, allied Irish Bank and Ulster Bank and I somehow ended up with Abbey National 
It’s best not to apply any reason or logic to Northern Ireland and how it works. Let’s not forget Northern Ireland has always got special treatment in so many ways.
I’m not sure why banking with Danske Bank in NI would be any better than banking with Santander or TSB.
At least the former give free access to their international ATMs. Danske in NI don’t offer anything.
Yes, that’s incredibly useful in Spain where almost all other banks seem to want €5 a shot just for a withdrawal.
Isn’t Spain fairly card friendly? Also do HSBC not have any ATMs there
There are gazillions of ATMs in Spain, but most charge foreigners upwards of €5 per transaction to withdraw money. Santander’s arrangement is very useful, though bizarrely if you use your (Santander) debit card there, you get whacked for very high charges.
Never seen any HSBC ATMs - that’s not to say they don’t exist.
The last time I withdrew cash in Spain Unicaja was the only bank which didn’t charge an extra fee for foreign cards.
Charging for ATM withdrawals is a general expectation in Spain, though. When I had a Spanish account withdrawals were only free at branches of my bank. There were small fees (cents) at ATMs on the same network, and larger fees (Euros) elsewhere.
HSBC’s website says that they only offer corporate and institutional banking products in Spain, so I doubt that they’d have any ATMs there.
“HSBC regrets to inform that it does not offer personal banking services in Spain, which also means that it cannot provide any assistance to personal banking customers of overseas HSBC entities.”
That’s not really relevant here.
Whilst the transaction might be free to the cardholder - the card issuer will be paying to use the machine via Visa/Mastercard via an interchange fee.
These higher direct charges (surcharging) are pure profiteering for standard bank run ATMs.
Whatever the issuer ends up paying is of little concern to the consumer tho surely?
The fees the customer cares about are the fee levied by the ATM operator, and the fee their issuer charges for use of the ATM.