HSBC LOAN account passed to Equidebt...Help?

[PrettyPaula]

Hi guys

My fiance has had a massive issue with HSBC which is outlined in the letter below... can someone have a read and make sure its an ok letter?

The Manager
Service Quality Team
HSBC Bank PLC
Arlington Business Centre
Millshaw Park Lane
Leeds
LS11 0PP


MR X
xxxxxxxxx
xxxxxx
xxxx
xxxxxxx


07947xxxxxxx


Dear Sir/Madam


RE: Bank Account 00000000000000 and Personal Loan


I am writing with reference to the above accounts with your company. I have a serious complaint regarding the treatment and administration of my accounts by your customer service team at your call centre.


I contacted your customer service centre in May 2007 to advise them that I would need to close my bank account and move my direct debit for my loan to a new account. This was due to a new job with a high street bank which meant I must move my current account. I was advised that this would not be possible as the loan payment must come from a HSBC bank account. I was a little unhappy with this arrangement, however, I agreed to keep the account open and transfer the funds for my loan into this account each month at my own inconvenience.


I encountered some financial difficulties later in the year which meant that my loan was not paid for a number of months and the account went overdrawn. I contacted your customer service centre again to let them know what had happened and we agreed a payment plan over the phone which consisted of me making larger payments into the account each month to clear the unauthorised overdraft, I was advised at this point that as my loan is a debt consolidation loan, and notes were being put onto my account, that no action would be taken regarding the loan.


I continued to pay the amounts into my account and continued to contact your customer service team who assured me that as soon as I had cleared the overdraft, charges could be removed and the money then in the account would be put to my loan account in order to bring this further upto date. I felt this a fair and simple arrangement and therefore I continued to pay money into the account. When I called in April 2008 to arrange the repayment of charges and to catch up with my loan, I was informed the account was no longer with yourselves and my account had NO notes on it. The service agents I had spoken to had failed to take note of my payment arrangement and as such you closed my bank account with no notice in January 2008. I also found this when checking my credit file. This is totally unacceptable. I notified you of my change of address at the end of 2007 and as yet have not received a single piece of correspondence from HSBC until today receiving a delightful letter from a debt collection agency by the name of Equidebt.


I am not in receipt of a default notice. I am not in receipt of any correspondence informing me that my loan account was being passed to another company or sold on. These are both severe breaches of the Consumer Credit Act as I am sure you are aware.


Furthermore, I have been making payments into my HSBC bank account that clearly have not been applied anywhere at all due to you closing the account. I assume these are in a holding account of some description. The payments are detailed below:

• January 2008 £300 paid over the counter at your Arnold branch
• 19th February 2008 £100 transferred into the account
• 20th March 2008 £100 transferred into the account
• 18th April 2008 £50 transferred into the account

I am deeply dissatisfied with the service from your company and upon questioning this with your Nottingham branch I was informed by a member of your staff that this “happens all the time, the call centre is pretty useless”. Slightly worrying comments from your own staff. I am sure you will agree.


My complaint is outlined above in full and in order to rectify the situation I request that the following points be actioned at your earliest convenience:

1. Retrieve my loan account from any debt collection agencies you may have sold it to or instructed to act on your behalf.
2. Remove ANY defaults from all three credit agency reports as these are a mistake on your part and unlawful.
3. Refund all charges on the bank account shown above and apply to my loan account.
4. Contact me to arrange a direct debit for my loan payment from my current account with Abbey.
5. Contact me to arrange repayment of any outstanding arrears on my loan account.
6. Refund any unlawful charges and interest on my loan account.
7. Contact me by telephone outside of office hours, as I work during these times, to confirm this has been actioned.
8. Contact me in writing to confirm you have the correct address for me, as this simple request has proven very difficult for your customer service team to update, and also to confirm the above points have been rectified.

As I am sure you are aware, the Financial Ombudsman has a formal complaints procedure which I fully intend to pursue if you do not rectify my complaint to my satisfaction. I have informed Equidebt that the account is in dispute and therefore any request for payment from them is a breach of the Consumer Credit Act. I refuse to correspond with them in any other way and am deeply disgusted that HSBC feel that they are within the law to pass my details to any other agency without first contacting me to come to any arrangement or enquire regarding anything concerning my accounts with yourselves. This is absolutely unacceptable behaviour.


I have been a customer of HSBC since I was at school and over the years I have had a number of bank accounts, overdrafts, credit cards and loans with you. Up until now I have been happy with the service from your company as a whole. I would greatly appreciate our relationship to remain that way and hope that in resolving my complaint we will continue to do so for many years.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.


Yours Sincerely




MR X

[PrettyPaula]

bump...anyone? id bve very grateful!

[PrettyPaula]

nobody loves me :P

[debt4get]

try pressing the red triangle that sometimes does the trick

[PrettyPaula]

isnt that just for reporting dodgy posts?

[Sev]

PP, don't worry, there's a lot of people wanting help here, so sometimes things don't get a reply posted instantly.

As far as you other half's letter goes, there's a lot there. From what I understand, he has had the debt assigned to Equidebt to be chased.

Before, he sends the letter, we need to know whether equidebt has started harrassing yet.

In all instances, your or his first action should be to lay the ground rules with the DCA. In this respect, in the library of template letters, you will find a template for requesting the SCA, or signed credit agreement from the DCA.

It buys you time, and hopefully, if you stick to your guns on it, get them off your back.

If the debt collector calls, I suggest you answer the phone, or be prepared to record telephone calls. Keep a log of names and numbers, and if you answer the calls, just refuse to give personal details out on grounds of security risks.

That's the first step.

Now for HSBC...

You need to get your head around the fact that to a bank, you are nothing more than a nine digit number. They don't care how many years you've been with them, or that you've been a great customer until your difficulties. To a bank you're only as good as your last bank charge, but from the letter he's worked this out for himself.

The next step is to write to HSBC with a breakdown of earnings and a letter detailing an offer of payment based on what he can comfortably afford.

The custard services call centres and all staff really don't care about this detail, they just want to recover their monies as quickly and aggressively as possible. You just have to stick to your guns, and don't back down on your offer of payment.

So, yes he can send the letter if he wants, but the thruth is, that the person reading it might get half way down and not bother any further.

Start by sending the SCA request to the Debt Collection Agency (use an electronic signature and send it special delivery with a postal order), and also the letter making an offer or payment to HSBC, and Don't panic in between waiting for these to take effect. If anybody rings, just say that you are not prepared to speak on the phone, and that anything they have to say can be put in writing, unless you're recording the conversation of course, in which case keep your head, and coax as much as you can out of him about what they'll do if you don't pay up.

Start with those.

[PrettyPaula]

Thanks for your reply Sev, the thing is we dont really want to do all of that yet, HSBC have been pretty good about the complaint, saying they will definately get it sorted, but it must be in writing.

I know you shouldnt but i called the DCA to advise them we are not worth chasing as this is not in default.

the thing is, we have no idea what is owed on the loan, or in fact what the hell HSBC have done with the money weve been paying!

i think i might send an F off letter to equidebt with a copy of the complaint, but the whole default DCA thing is not an option, we are in a position to pay the debts as agreed now with no problems and if fiance gets defaults etc he will lose his job as he works for a bank himself.

HSBC have basically made the mother of all cock ups and they need to put it right. Watchdog would have a field day. indian call centres have been nothing but trouble!

[Sev]

PP, I know all about indian call centres!

In which case, perhaps then it is best dealt with at a human level.

However I would send the DCA a letter saying that the account is in dispute, and therefore they have no right to chase for the debt.

As you are in a position to pay the debt, perhaps it might be helpfull to go to a major branch of the bank on a nice crowded saturday and blow your nut at the manager!

It is unlikely that the DCA will file a default, that's the usual idle threats.

It may be an idea to intone in the letter that you feel that if a default wrongfully filed against you puts his job at risk then yu will take legal action and compensatory action against HSBC.

But my initial thoughts, given that you have means to settle would be to lay this at the door of the manager of the branch with whom he had the account, as then you can get personal about length of custom etc.

[PrettyPaula]

Definately... im pretty happy with the letter, i have insider knowledge that HSBC have recently changed their complaints policy, they have a ten day turnaround now with all complaints. a little birdy told me they got a bit of a rollocking from Financial Ombudsman etc.


the amusing thing is, where the heck has this money weve been transferring into his account gone? if they closed it in January!

[PrettyPaula]

I am completely GOBSMACKED at the letter HSBC have sent to us this morning regarding this.

i cant scan so i will type it up for you guys to read.

Dear Mr XXXX

further to our letter dated 9 may 2008, i have no fully investigated the matters you raised.

my enquiries confirm that on 11 january 2008 your bank account and managed loan account were closed and the outstanding balance transferred to metropolitan collection services.

whilst i acknowledge your comments and sympathise with the circumstances in relation to this matter, i can confirm that the actions taken by the Bank are correct and in accordance with the banks standard debt recovery procedures.

My enquiries confirm that we did have a conversation with yourself in 2007 regarding the position on your bank account and managed loan account. our records show that in order to help you rectify the situation on both your accounts and in acknowledgement of your financial difficulties we did agree a short term repayment plan by setting up a promise to pay arrangement. According to our information held in our records, the promise to pay arrangement was broken twice that is in july and august 2007. given that, our normal debt recovery procedures were followed. as no further long term agreement was reached, on 11 december 2007 the demand was made on all outstanding balances you owe. we did notify you about our actions on our letter dated 11 december 2007. whilst i acknowledge your comments about the change of your address, i regret to advise you that i have been unable to locate any record of your written or verbal notification relating to your new address. you will appreciate that it is the responsibility of the account holder to notify the bank of any changes in personal details and provide the relevant proof of such changes.

in view of the above comments i regret i am unable to agree to your request to recall your accounts from the metropolitan collection services given that you did not meet your commitments.

with reference to any payments you made to your bank account, i would advise you to contact the debt collection agency, given that your accounts held with the bank have been closed.

if you have any queries or would like any further information, please contact me on 0845 6006423 quoting ref XXXXXXX

I trust that matters have now been resolved to your satisfaction. if this is not the case you can escalate your concerns by writing to the senior manager of our service quality team at the following address

XXX
XXXX
XXXXX

I am obliged to inform you that complaints we cannot resolve can ultimately be referred to the FOS, however if we do not hear from you within the next 8 weeks we will consider matters resolved.

Thankyou for taking the time to bring your concerns to our attention i am only sorry it was necessary for you to do so.

Yours Sincerely

XXXXXXXxxx

service improvement officer

okay so now i am seriously mad.

she has completely ignored the fact that we have not recieved a default notice or notice of asisgnment, funny seeing as the debt colection agency had the right address eh?

and the total lack of concern for the money that has disappeared??!

i am so angry right now i cant even speak i feel like writing two distinct words and mailing them right back at her.

what do we do now...; WE are NOT paying anything to a DCA. if HSBC want their money i suggest they put right what they have cocked up!

[PrettyPaula]

bump as could really do with some help here... this is about as serious as any of our accounts are and im terrified that fiance is gonna mess up our chances of EVER buying our own house.

i guess the only good thing is that at the moment we are £150 a month better off eh?

[GuidoT]

Not really my field, someone from the team should be along shortly to help.

If no one comes along, BUMP and as I am now subscribed I can highlight it again.

[steven4064]

Hi PP

It strikes me you have a couple of options:

1) refer the complaint to the FOS as OH threatened in the first letter and HSBC have 'suggested' in theirs. He must complete the complaints procedure first by escalating as in their letter. If there are defaults, the FOS (in our experience) are less than enthusiastic about ordering their removal.

2) reply to their letter with a LBA requesting the £550 back within 14 days or you will file a claim in the county court. You could tie in removal of any default and make an issue of the failure to supploy default notice, NOA, etc.

[PrettyPaula]

whats an LBA??

is it worth contacting Metro to see if they have the money? are they the same as equidebt?

the problem is the bank account i dunno if it had a balance on it still or what really?

[steven4064]

LBA = Letter Before Action (basically a threat to take them to court).

Is metro the DCA? you probably should ask them before suing HSBC for ithe money.