I heard a while ago that there was a guy in the states who made a website of all the different ivr options for various companies, apparently he was going to do the same for UK companies as well but no idea what the website is.
The link punky provided advises using the number as if you are calling from abroad with MBNA cards- this works with capital one and barclaycard too
however, with hsbc you get to the same telephone banking main menu.