Hi all I know I'm firing on all cylinders tonight but as I was poorly treated by both Lloyds TSB over a loan that I fell into difficulty with and they gave me no help whatsoever and I was poorly treated over HSBC for piling up overdraft charges against me when I went overdrawn without realising I read the articles on the Banking code of business regulations and wondered if this could be used against both firms? How would I go about doing this as it looks interesting but I wouldn't really know where to start?

I SARed HSBC 35 days ago, on Saturday I got a letter saying they couldn't send me the info as I hadn't signed the letter (I had!!!) so I wrote a letter today asking them to scan and email me a copy of my letter as proof and pointing out they had cashed my cheque and they have 5 days left before my LBA. Anyway I am fairly convinced that I paid Cardholder Protection Insurance on this Credit Card but thought I would double check and phoned them. The lady I spoke to says I didn't pay any. She put me on hold and said she had checked with two other departments and I didn't pay it on this card. Now I'm convinced I did but have no statements. I did pay a lot of charges so will be after them for those no matter what but my question is: Do they ever [EDIT] to people about having paid PPI in the first place?

I recieved two letters a few days ago from 1st Credit asking if I lived at the address, I ignored them thinking it was some kind of [problem] (I mean either they know I live here or not). today I get two letters from HSBC (who I had a joint account with my ex-wife about 7 years ago) and they have said they have passed on two debts I owe them to 1st Credit! One if for £600 the other is over £2000! Do I contact 1st Credit and confirm I live here and ask for the details of the debts or contact HSBC?

As I have been moving house, I have just come across a pile of HSBC Credit card statement copies from 2001-2005. I's requested these back in 2007ish to check for late payment fees, but there wasn't any. Hadn't realised these were tucked away somewhere. Anyway i've checked through and there is over £600 of Credit Card Repayment Protection fee's across the period. HSBC have already refunded me the PPi on 2 loans and my mortgage due to a miss sell so this should be pretty straight forward. I have done my spreadsheets and I think I have a healthy £450 of simple 8% interest and a further £1,968.58 of compound interest. I know there have been issues with 6 year rules, but fortunately I have copies of all the statements and will include them with my FOS complaint form to HSBC. Lets see what HSBC offer

Seeing as this might be a long thread (unless HSBC get their act together!). I sent off my SAR to HSBC asking for information on all my accounts (this was made bold and in capitals to ensure they understood the request!). They have since sent me a nice 2 page letter giving me the details of a loan, and the PPI reference numbers for both the loan and credit card. They claim they couldn't provide me with further details as it is held with another Data Controller (cunningly titled HSBC General Insurance). The letter also states the information provided is free and therefore they have returned my cheque (funny as it was a postal order) - Which wasn't included in the letter! As there is a week to go before the 40 day deadline is up, should I write now and tell them they've failed or should I wait till it has expired and send the failed letter?

We have a first mortgage with HSBC. It has run for ten years and we are now in the capital repayment period. We have applied to them to pay interest only whilst we sell our house. It has been on the market since July and we have potential buyers but are waiting for them to complete the sale of their own property. Cutting our mortgage payments at this time would help as we are really struggling at the moment and we do not want to be repossessed. We are currently not in arrears, but have other debts which are causing us difficulties. HSBC's response is that they will only help us if we are going through a divorce or are redundant and will not consider our proposal. Has anybody any advice on how to persuade them? We do not want to be forced to split up but it seems the only option they are giving us.

Hello Everyone I would like to share my terrible experience with you all... HSBC and then the Ombudsman.... My concern started in October 2009... personally I am a Financial Analyst and decided to invest some money in a HSBC Invest Direct (share dealing) account, which is DD to my HSBC Plus account, which means I have got 2 different contract with HSBC. I made quite few thousands in couple of years... In October 2009 unfortunately I was diagnoised with swine flu and could not manage to get out of the bed, in the meanwhile few days before couple of my orders were executed and which made me overdrawn £5,750 in my HSBC Plus current account but considering I have got £1,500 authorised overdraft limit and appx £15,000 worth shares in my Invest Direct account.... HSBC started to charge me around £398 in 2 months and then decided to sell my shares and suspend my account... The contract says: HSBC Invest Direct: If you do not have sufficient funds in your account, HSBC has got rights to sell your shares.... HSBC Plus account says: I have got an authorised overdraft limit of £1500 and excessive use of this limit will be penalised with daily interest + fees (which does not state any kind of how much unauthorised you can go up to) Wait for this... I was overdrawn around £5,750 from which I have got an authorised overdraft limit of £1,500 and they sold a total of £6,145 worth shares in 2009... and also they suspended my share dealing account for around 10 days in which I had around another £9K worth shares.... I tried to contact HSBC and proceed my complaint and of course dont be naive... NO result.... when has anyone seen to get a result with their complaints in the first step... I tried to contact the person who authorised to sell my shares, and asked him why he sold more than even the overdraft? his answer was: "We left you a budget for your daily expenditures" I asked him if he has ever seen me paying any bills from my account? he said "No" I took this case to the Ombudsman.... Great big Ombudsman... only 500-600meters away from HSBC headquarter.... 3 adjudicator amazingly found HSBC within their terms and conditions.... I appealed and requested a "Final Decision".... in August 2010.... Mr Ombudsman took my case as the adjudicators are not allowed to give the final decision.... He took his time and in February 2011... he gave a "Provisional Decision" of fair compensation for me his words were: "A = Total amount sold B = Unauthorised overdraft (which means - £1,500 of authorised overdraft) C = A - B So I was supposed to be getting C amount of shares in todays value as compensation .... When I proved that my C amount of shares are worth £6,750 in todays value (current BBC prices), I think they did not like that... Then what happened.... Final Decision came in October 2011... NO COMPENSATION given and HSBC has rights to do so??? I took it further and went to the Independent Asssessor.... No result..... upppss sorry, I should not say like that... here is the result I got: The Great Big Ombudsman sent me a cheque of £100 as an appology as it took 21 months to come to this conclusion (if you consider average handling time for each case is 6 months) ... I call it as "Consolation Prize" Keep quite son! we give you £100 go and have a glass of wine, which will cool you down What I dont understand is; if I used my credit card and bought lots of stuff and gone overdrawn, what would have happened? I dont expect HSBC would come and cease my clothes or the stuff I bought? Even if they were right (which they are not) why did they charge me £398 for an unauthorised overdraft fee + Interest + daily charges? It is a service that I have not received and why did they sell my shares? I dont really know what happened between Feb and October 2011 but it is not really surprising especially if you consider HSBC HeadQuarter and Financial Ombudsman is only 2-3 street far away each other.... May be a nice lunch break in an expensive restaurant or a small coffee shop will be a great place to negotiate??? What do you think???? Anyway I really dont know what to do??? I tried to contact the media sources, tried everything... Sky, BBC, ITV Daily Mail, FT, etc... even Daybreak and Lorraine no response.... I would really appreciate if anyone can help me as I ran out of my options... Btw European Ombudsman is not even bothered about it, they are more interested in Euro then GBP Kind regards

Mrs ICY took out a so called Flexxi loan in 2006, such a horrible system they use, knowing you will never pay the damn thing off, its just another account on your online account credited with £5000 you pay £200 a month back (they take £75 for themselves every month from this) the problem is the moneys always there and its always being used, it is such an expensive loan to use but because of the £200 going out to repay it really leaves us short it a trap. it was taken out in branch, when she went in they just asked if all circumstances were the same (she had been a customer for many years) they mentioned nothing about PPI but not only do they take £75 a month for the pleasure but they have also set up "load protection" at just under £17 a month, spreadsheet ready to be printed. Her work contract covers her on full sick pay for up to 6 month so there is no way any sickness policy would be needed and her job is extremely secure as she is responsible for funding so and would know a year in advance if her position were at risk.

Hello Quick question, I remembered last night about a graduate loan I took out in 2004 and which I paid off in 2009 if I remember correctly. I called HSBC and asked them to check the record to see if it had PPI and indeed it did, I remember the meeting very well as it was the day before my birthday and it was the fella's claim that I stood a better chance of being successful if I took the PPI and the hard sell he did on it that made me take it but although the HSBC bod could see it on the system, said they wouldn't have the loan agreement as it commenced over 6 years ago, is she lying to me? She said she would send me a screen grab which basically just confirms that it was on there but what if I can't get hold of the loan agreement, am I screwed? Any help would be hugely appreciated. Edit: Oh and she gave me an address to wrote to for their complaints department, almost as though she was resigned to "yet another claim" if that makes sense?

Hello everyone, I’m new to the forum and would really appreciate some much needed advice on my current debt situation. Apologies if I have posted this in the wrong section I wasn’t sure where to start. I have 2 debts which I need to get to a manageable amount ASAP. I have a £700 debt with Very Catalogue – I 1st ordered from the site around July/Aug 2010. Secondly an overdraft of £750 with HSBC. Recently Very have started to add additional charges and interest (which I knew would happen) but I have found myself in a less than comfortable position to pay the amounts that they are asking for. In June 2010 I was offered a decently paid job and jumped at the chance. I paid off all of my other debts quite quickly to get them out of the way before I would be hassled for the 2 above debts. I then moved into a shared flat and naively used my Very account to order furniture and such as at the time I would easily have been able to make the repayments. However, I was given the choice in July this year to either terminate my employment or to reduce my hours, I had no other job options so I chose to reduce my hours and now earn around £650-£700 each month after tax. These are my usual monthly outgoings: Rent: £225.00 Bills: £150.00 Food/Toiletries etc: £100.00 Phone: £20.00 - £30.00 Credit card payments: £25.00 Transport to work: £40.00 I’ve had a letter from Very (1st debt recovery) this week and they have phoned me around 15 times already but I’m refusing to speak to them over the phone just yet. I can’t afford to pay what they are asking at the minute and I know with the interest rates the amount is going to grow pretty substantially if I can’t agree on a smaller payment rate. Similar situation with HSBC. I was sent a letter from their Collection agency asking me to simply:‘‘Please Call Danielle on the number below’’ Which I did and was told she was unavailable. They couldn’t talk to me about anything regarding the account and just passed me from person to person until I was told id have to contact HSBC directly at which point they confirmed my address details, hence I was a bit confused by the purpose of the letter. Id just like some advice on what you think the best course of action would be as my debts haven’t spiraled out of control yet but I can see it happening soon enough. Id say I have on average around £100 of ‘disposable’ income each month and was thinking of making an offer to repay £50 to each company each month. I haven’t made any payments to HSBC as of yet as I was under the impression my account had been changed to a graduate interest free OD but apparently they decided it wasn’t to be. I have made regular monthly payments to Very over the course of the last year and have only more recently found it difficult to pay the balance in full Does anyone have any dealings with this type of thing and do you think it would be something they would likely accept? Im just finding it difficult to figure out where to start. Regards,Zephy. .

Hi there everyone, I know its late but hope someone is awake and can give me a little advice. I had a £2000 debt with HSBC, passed to Metropolitan collection services and communications began. I researched other people's advice to get written communications and take details of any phone contact. Mid September I offered £500 as a full and final settlement figure, which they accepted via a letter from them, dated 18th September giving me a deadline of 15th September!! Of course, making it impossible to pay. I called and they realised the error. They said they would have to extend the offer. I called back several days later and they confirmed the offer was extended until the 25th, so I paid the original £500 and clarified that is was a full and final settlement. They agreed, and explained that my file would be marked as partially satisfied. I paid over the phone, got the receipt number and requested a confirmation through the post. Nothing! So I called tonight, and the agent said that my balance was £1500 (after my £500) payment, that the account was under 'investigation' and that her system was shutting down at 9pm so would have to call in the morning. Am I worrying unecessarily or have they totally robbed me of £500 and used it to pay off just £500 0f that £2000 after agreeing that it was to be a full and final settlement figure? Please someone help, its going to be a looooong night!

I am at the stage where I have responded to claim forms on line and I have requested all relevant information from the two solicitors concerned. I have a week left to post a defence on line and I dont know what to do. I was made redundant twice over the past two years and I have tried to agree payment plans with these guys, but they have just gone legal on me. I didn't want them to just pass these debts over to a collector, so I am defending myself. The agreements are from 1994 MBNA and 2004 HSBC and the more I read from this site they may well be un-enforceable................... URGENT help is needed here guys, I'm a complete novice depending on you!

Hi everyone, this is my first post so please be gentle I am in the process of filing an amended defence regarding unenforceable CCA 1974 agreement and require advice on the matter. The story so far is that I originally filed an embarrassed defence due to DG Solicitors not supplying documents that related to HSBC claim for £12,000 on a Gold Card. HSBC did not take any further action and the case was stayed. They then recently applied for the stay to be lifted and judgement entered for them as, in their opinion, I had no chance of winning. I appeared at court yesterday and contested their application on the grounds that I have not received a default notice and requested it be struck out. The district judge on reading my witness statement denied summary judgement and re allocated the case to fast track. I now have to file another defence to their claim and was wondering on what basis I should defend post Carey v HSBC. I was originally going to claim that the CCA does not contain the prescribed terms but am now unsure (there is no mention of APR on CCA). DG Solicitors have admitted that they cannot supply a copy of the default notice as they do not keep records of electronic documents. Their agent at court seems to think that she can rely on a reconstituted copy (she showed me a blank template) Advice greatly appreciated

Hi All, First of all, I hope I am posting in the right forum/subject if not please let me know. I am in the process of reviewing my credit report as it is beginning to look like in the near future my girlfriend and I will be looking to apply for a mortgage and I have a few things on my credit report I'd like to clear up. On my credit report (with both experian and equifax) it shows my HSBC current account (recently closed) as having 2 late payment markers showing one 2 seperate occassions. After some digging I found out that these were actually not a 'late payment' but actually on one occassion where a direct debit had been returned unpaid and another where a cheque had been returned unpaid - blatantly down to a lack of attention as I use one account for bills and another for day to day spending. Now I have written to HSBC regarding this however they have came back and said that they are well within their rights to do so (experian have confirmed this) but I really do feel like this is a mis-respresentation of my financial status - it's not like my accounts even went overdrawn, they wern't given the chance to do so! It might also be worth mentioning I found one of these late payment markers before back in 2009, wrote to the bank and as a gesture of goodwill had it removed, however they now state they have done this once and can not be done again. I feel really frustrated as no other high street bank currently uses this practice and therefore it is unfair treatment by banking with them. Do I have any rights with regards to this? At first I thought I might have found my solution on here but I have just realised defaults are different from late payment markers. I would really appreciate any help from anyone who has dealt with the same situation or knows someone who has. Many Thanks in advance Andy

Hi, I sent a SAR to HSBC specifically about a visa credit card. I have had a response from them saying that as I didn't sign the letter the bank is unable to act upon my instructions at present. They have returned my postal order. They ask me to send a new signed request. Is this right? I thought I had read that the request didn't have to be signed, but I have failed to find that in a search here. Is there a standard reply to this? Thank you, Sue

Extremely abusive husband who left me for another woman when I was diagnosed with breast cancer..........in a nutshell my excuse for me being such a numpty and not fighting harder against HSBC. This was 2001, I had a £5,000 overdraft with HSBC had been forced to leave family home awaiting divorce. I moved into a rented house with a friend who was director of her own company and I agreed to help out as company secretary for no fee/salary. The account was held at the same branch as my personal account, but was of no consequence as I was not financially linked. I was unable to work due to my cancer etc and at the time my 'broken heart'. My divorce was dragging on not helped by the fact it was me that moved out when not given a choice. I approached HSBC for either an increase in my overdraft or a small loan to help me through. I was told a loan may be possible but heard no more. To cut a long story short, the account manager (who had shown a vested interest in the owner of the companies work had placed £10,000 into the company account with no authorisation from me, no discussion but logged against me personally, and then proceeded to move this around to pay company interest salary for Director etc at will, with absolutely no benefit to me. I protested and protested and each time I was fobbed off until eventually to shut me up he raised my overdraft to 6,500 and at the very same time he placed interest payments of approximately £80 a month onto my personal account for the loan I had not personally received or benefited from, and which from what I was shown seemed to very quickly disappear from the company account in charges! On top of this I was charged horrendous interest charges on my personal account and together with the interest on this loan, I went overlimit and was then stung with overlimit charges, unauthorised overdraft etc. So without consulting me he raised my overdraft again until it reached £10,000. I complained that none of this was fair. I was spiralling into something I had no control over. When my divorce settlement came through I was afraid to put it into HSBC with an account manager who felt it within his bounds to play chess with bank accounts. Afraid with what would happen to my money that had to see me through my illness and provide me with a home, I opened up an account with another bank. I refused to acknowledge the loan that I had never received or authorised but started to place small amounts of money into my personal account to slowly bring down the overdraft until it was hopefully gone. Eventually my account was kicked out of the branch to head office. Then out of the blue HSBC called in the loan that I had not personally received and on the same day called in my overdraft, the later of which I was paying in regular small amounts to clear and not using it otherwise. I wrote requesting why they had done this, why a loan which I had never authorised or personally received or benefited from had gone into collection and why they had closed my personal account when it was obvious I was clearing it. They ignored me, I wrote by recorded delivery several times all of which were ignored. Then I was contacted by MCS, I told then what had happened and they put it on hold and requested someone come back to them. Someone did and told them they had never seen anything like this before and did not know how to deal with it. Still nobody sent me anything in the post other than demands. They had of course registered with the CRA's two defaults amounting now to over £21,000 with extra added interest SINCE closing the accounts. As I was getting better from my illness but too ill to seek employment, I tried to start a little company of my own working from home, childrens books and illustration work. Unfortunately my otherwise perfect credit rating had been shot to pieces by HSBC. Still awaiting a responce from HSBC or MCS, I got a letter from MCS thanking me for acknowledging the debt and my offer of payment of £31 per month!!!!!!!!! I had no idea what they were talking about until I realized that although my current account was closed, they had retained a small pension I was receiving which I had drawn early due to my health and truncated it to MCS as my payment on the loan, thus making it in effect go away. I contacted the ombudsman, who wrote to them and ask for explanations, of course nobody replied, ombudsman wrote again, still no reply. To cut this long story short I then after everything that was going on in my life had a breakdown. The small pension continued to be truncated to MCS and I repeatedly got calls night and day for more money during my illness. I did part with a total of about £750 on top of this. Now I am back in mind and body, stronger and ready to fight. I stopped the pension payments going to MCS, I was told they had made an illegal move doing that. I wrote a subject access request enclosing £10 to MCS twice!! and was told to send a further £10 to HSBC which I did. 40 days later to the day, I received a single box of printouts, a letter saying they were not obliged to divulge manual activity by branch members or manager of course no paperwork whatsoever on the loan, apart from a print out calling it a bridging loan and a scribbled note from a member of staff with their name blacked out stating I was due to pay it back out of the sale of my home!!! Now if you are still with me after this lengthy tome. I have obviously been stitich up here and if I could afford a solicitor I would. However I just need the basic advice, to make this go away once and for all, its been over 10 years now. 1. My subject access request contained very little other than statements on my current account which obviously showed I had not in anyway personally received a loan on increased overdraft. 2. Taking out this 10,000 loan that left just over £6,000, but they had taken £4,300 in interest on the 'loan' out of my personal account. add the interest on that and these overlimit charges, they actually owe me! However I am not persuing that just want this to go away with the least hastle possible. 3. And finally just as an aside how can this so called loan have interest repayments of around £80 per month, yet they were taking over £500 a month in interest and charges on an overdraft of the same amount and when I could not quite manage to get that amount in to get back under the overdraft limit they wacked over limit charges on which dug the whole even deeper. Mess isnt it? But what a prime example of irresponsible lending to the extreme. If anyone is still awake after reading this, I would love to hear your thoughts.

I posted an article or thread whatever you call it regarding HSBC bank and their office "the arc" in nottingham. Merely asking if anyone else had had dealings with this place or office. The post disappeared is it me if so could someone explain

Hello, firstly, I've messed up big time, though circumstances and ilness I'm in a predicament. I had some bank charges from HSBC. About £2000. I didn't deal with it and it went to court and they got judement against me. They then put a charge against my house and now I have had a letter from the court saying that unless I pay the now £3250 they will send the bailiffs. Which will add more to the debt. I'm not in a position to pay the whole lot, but I can pay a few hundred, maybe more. Please can someone suggest the route to take and help me write letters. Thank you, Desperate Sue

Hi, I’m looking for some advice regarding life insurance sold with mortgages. My in laws took out a re-mortgage on their property in 2003 with HSBC. When they took out the loan they were sold a life insurance policy as well, I’m not sure at the moment if it covered anything else like critical illness etc. as they have lost the policy documents and we are waiting for copies from HSBC. At the time of taking out the mortgage my mother-in-law was 62, and on long term disability benefits, and my father –in-law was 60 and also on benefits following an accident, he is also main carer for my mother-in-law. In 2005 they sold their home and moving in with us due to deterioration of my mother-in-laws health. The mortgage was paid off with the proceeds of the sale. At this point they made an appointment at the bank to put their account in order and cancel unwanted direct debits etc. When they told the lady who dealt with them that they wanted to cancel the life policy for the mortgage she informed they that they should keep it running as it would give them financial peace of mind should one of them die. She told them that on death the policy would pay out £40,000 for each party, so they kept the policy going at a cost of £60.99 per month. Last week they went to the bank about another issue, but also checked the relevant issues of their life policy as they are both some 6 years older now. They were informed by the bank that the policy only related to mortgage they had settled 6 years earlier, and the policy depreciated with time, in line with the reducing sum owed each month if they still had the mortgage. He said that even if it would pay out now it would only be worth £6,000 each, and finishes next May as that’s when the mortgage would have been paid up. They are both utterly devastated by this news, having paid £4086.00 into a policy for the last 6 years which has turned out to be of no use to them. They have raised a verbal complaint with the bank, and have received a letter saying “they will look into it”. However, I feel it needs addressing with a much firmer stance than just waiting and hoping. Do you think they have a chance of claiming back this money? And if so can they add interest charges on top? Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

Hello, I am trying to claim back bank charges from HSBC, I am in financial hardship and considering IVA or bankrupcy at the moment. We lost our 20 year family biz 18 months ago and struggling to keep up payemnts. Looking back on my hsbc account have calculated roughly £3500 worth of charges - several charges at £80 a time and one particular big one at £260.00 (I thinik these are combination of bounced DD's etc all in one charge). Anyway this figure of £3500 inc interest. I have sent HSBC the relevant template docs etc claiming hardship and asking them to refund charges and basically got a 'No' with a request to fill in their income and expenditure form (which they omitted to encluse wih the letter) - I wrote back and said i would be happy to complete and please could they return by post as i only have a mobile and cannot afford the 0845 numebr which costs about £1.00 a minute. They replied today by letter saying no they HAVE to speak to me by phone and call the number or go to the branch. I have avoided speaking to any of my creditors and done everything in writing for some time now - which has reduced stress quite a lot, when on the phone they often pressure and I have been on anti depressents etc - could not cope with the 'cant you borrow some money off your parents' type call. Today made the huge mistake of ringing them and despite my letters and claim letter explaining my depression and hardship they a/ suggested i got another job where i earnt more money and could afford my outgoings and b/ suggested i get money off a friend or family to pay the debt. They threatened that if i didnt do this then the whole account was going to be repayable in 5 days time and a formal demand would be made. I asked why they could not put this in writing and they said that they could not becuase they were a call centre.. and the situation needed to be resolved quickly. I am currently at £1650 overdrawn with them , the overdraft is £1500 - im not over my overdraft from over spending im over the overdraft from interest charges - or some form of charges. I wanted to take this to the ombudsman but i was advised to complete their income / expenditure form first but now im frightened to talk to them over the phone and they are saying they cant deal with this by writing.. Can someone advise me of my next best move? Id be extremely grateful for any help here.

In simple terms this is 1 of my 3 accounts, its literally used for a couple of direct debits that I want to keep separate. Having second thoughts considering I keep missing them. I had a direct debit come out this morning which I had forgotten about, checked my bank and it had been paid so I thought best transfer enough in so i'd not go overdrawn which I did. And being extremely cynical of banks I take screenshots of everything just incase. Interestingly I just checked back and that same direct debit has now been bounced and if you have a look at my screenshots from lunch time today and this evening you will see that they prized the bounced dd between the dd and the credits. Naturally i'm extremely anoyed about this and you can bet that if i'd not of credited the account they'd of paid it and charged an od fee. I will be charged £25 for this so naturally if I can get around this i'd like to. I should add that there is no charge for being less that £10 overdrawn and they do not charge for being overdrawn if you are bank before 3.30 that working day. Any ideas much appreciated. Screens Lunch : http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af299/badgercraig/Dirt/before.jpg Just now: http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/af299/badgercraig/Dirt/after.jpg

I have recently received 3 letters from Clarity Credit Management (Collections Department) writing on behalf of their Client: HSBC Bank Plc. The letters read.... [16/11/2010 ""We have been instructed by HSBC Bank Plc to make arrangements with you to repay the above amount...we are prepared to offer you a discount" and gives me the option of a reduced settlement or a Payment plan. [30/11/2010] The next was similar. [15/12/2010] The third gave me one final chance to make a one off payment and that the offer would last 7 days as "we have been unable to agree with you an acceptable payment plan". Initially I thought it was a mistake because: - I have never had a credit card, debit card or any type of store card. - I have never had an account or ANY dealings with HSBC. - I have no debt (other than my student loan which I have not paid back because I am still at University). However when 3 letters arrived I began to worry. I went to a HSBC bank but was told they could not discuss it, I would have to go to Clarity. I am concerned this could effect my credit in the future. Any advice would be helpful.

A big hello to everyone on the forum – been reading your posts for two days and absolutely flabbergasted by some of your misfortunes inflicted by the banks. I m seeking abit of advice myself, for a matter that has come up as a small element in a few cases, but hasn’t been clearly addressed (I hope I m not alone here): First let me state that all that found out below are through my personal, voluntary action. Up to now I still haven’t received any correspondence from either HSBC or Metropolitan Collection Service (I could still be blissfully unaware of everything!). Last Friday afternoon, I was trying to use online banking to pay for an overdraft of less than £20 into my HSBC Advance Account (upgraded from a normal current account by HSBC, offered via Telephone marketing in July), just to find that it’s not there. A few phone calls later, I discovered that the account has been closed by HSBC without any form of notification to me. Now - 1. I have been banking with HSBC for 11 years, on the same account. This account has been used to receive salaries, etc. since I have started working (before that a 16-19 account, then a student, then Graduate), and every month around £1,100 is moved to a joint account with a different bank (Halifax) for family finances. There is a £1,250 agreed overdraft limit on this account, untouched till recently. 2. I finished my previous work contract in June, and have been job hunting since. At the time I moved the remaining balance to the joint account, with a few quids’ worth left. Because I have no money coming in, this account has seen no cash flow since. In July I think, a direct debit which I forgot to cancel took around £17 out of it and made it in arrears. I am aware of it, but thought a) I should leave it till I get my next job, and b) I have the agreed overdraft. I am tracking the interests added onto this amount, which is as stated in the policy. I have since cancelled that direct debit (both with HSBC and where the payment is going to). No problems there. 3. I also understand that it is the T&C that if I am in debt, I should make regular payment into the account. But first of all, I specifically asked, when being upgraded, if I need to maintain a certain amount of monthly cash flow for the Advance Account. The answer was a clear NO. As far as I am aware, there isn’t a definition of “regular” in the legal sense. Second of all, the T&C states that HSBC reserve the right to demand immediate payment, or stop the overdraft facility completely. There has been no correspondence to me with any such demand (confirmed by HSBC staff at my local branch), or any attempt to try to agree with me a course of action. And in any case, nothing in the T&C warranted them to close my account without any form of correspondence – for a debt of less than £20, under an overdraft limit of 1,250! It has been mentioned that the bank has the right to close an account as they please, but when I demanded to see that as part of the T&C, staff at the local branch failed to produce evidence (Is it actually true, by the way??). 4. After the phone calls on Friday afternoon, and visit to the local branch on Saturday, the situation is as follows: My account has been closed by the “Collection Department” due to “bad debt” on the 8th of December, with a letter drafted to tell me that it is closed on the 7th, which I still haven’t received (and I have to stress, debt of less than £20! The bankers probably pay more to have their shirt cleaned). And everybody’s favourite Metropolitan Collection Service now has my detail to collect the money from me. I explained everything to the staff at the local branch, and pointed out holes in all their arguments, and the final answer was “once a decision has been made unfortunately it is irreversible”, and “it is not possible to reopen your account, and you won’t be able to open future HSBC current account”. So much for being the world’s local bank! I guess I need advice because: a) the bank account is my first and for a long time only personal account which has a lot of sentimental value to me, and to have it taken away in such a blunt manner without nearly enough justification is impersonal, intrusive, and downright absurd (and all for less than £20, with a £1,250 overdraft limit!!); b) Now that MCS is on my tail, could anybody advise what it’s going to do to my credit rating (Again, for less than £20!!)? I m planning to take out a mortgage in 1-2 years… L ; c) There has got to be somewhere I could complain about the whole situation? This looks to me a procedural injustice to say the least. I m not saying there is nothing I couldn’t have done better; but when the risk of something happening has not been outlined and communicated, it is surely not justifiable to inflict the consequence of such risk to a customer? And the branch manager had the cheek to say “all our decisions are carefully made, and once a decision has been made, HSBC will stand by it”. Which is basically “whatever we want to do is final, and you can just go and stuff yourself!” Would be interested hearing what you guys have to say. The irony here really is that I discovered all this when I was trying to settle this small “debt”… A massive thank you in advance! And Happy Christmas – not sure I ll have one now!

A big hello to everyone on the forum – been reading your posts for two days and absolutely flabbergasted by some of your misfortunes inflicted by the banks. I m seeking abit of advice myself, for a matter that has come up as a small element in a few cases, but hasn’t been clearly addressed (I hope I m not alone here): First let me state all that found out below are through my personal, voluntary action. Up to now I still haven’t received any correspondence from either HSBC or Metropolitan Collection Service (I could still be blissfully unaware of everything!). Last Friday afternoon, I was trying to use online banking to pay for an overdraft of less than £20 into my HSBC Advance Account (upgraded from a normal current account by HSBC, offered via Telephone marketing in July), just to find that it’s not there. A few phone calls later, I discovered that the account has been closed by HSBC without any form of notification to me. Now - 1. I have been banking with HSBC for 11 years, on the same account. This account has been used to receive salaries, etc. since I have started working (before that a 16-19 account, then a student, then Graduate), and every month around £1,100 is moved to a joint account with a different bank (Halifax) for family finances. There is a £1,250 agreed overdraft limit on this account, untouched till recently. 2. I finished my previous work contract in June, and have been job hunting since. At the time I moved the remaining balance to the joint account, with a few quids’ worth left. Because I have no money coming in, this account has seen no cash flow since. In July I think, a direct debit which I forgot to cancel took around £17 out of it and made it in arrears. I am aware of it, but thought a) I should leave it till I get my next job, and b) I have the agreed overdraft. I am tracking the interests added onto this amount, which is as stated in the policy. I have since cancelled that direct debit (both with HSBC and where the payment is going to). No problems there. 3. I also understand that it is the T&C that if I am in debt, I should make regular payment into the account. But first of all, I specifically asked, when being upgraded, if I need to maintain a certain amount of monthly cash flow for the Advance Account. The answer was a clear NO. As far as I am aware, there isn’t a definition of “regular” in the legal sense. Second of all, the T&C states that HSBC reserve the right to demand immediate payment, or stop the overdraft facility completely. There has been no correspondence to me with any such demand (confirmed by HSBC staff at my local branch), or any attempt to try to agree with me a course of action. And in any case, nothing in the T&C warranted them to close my account without any form of correspondence – for a debt of less than £20, under an overdraft limit of 1,250! It has been mentioned that the bank has the right to close an account as they please, but when I demanded to see that as part of the T&C, staff at the local branch failed to produce evidence (Is it actually true, by the way??). 4. After the phone calls on Friday afternoon, and visit to the local branch on Saturday, the situation is as follows: My account has been closed by the “Collection Department” due to “bad debt” on the 8th of December, with a letter drafted to tell me that it is closed on the 7th, which I still haven’t received (and I have to stress, debt of less than £20! The bankers probably pay more to have their shirt cleaned). And everybody’s favourite Metropolitan Collection Service now has my detail to collect the money from me. I explained everything to the staff at the local branch, and pointed out holes in all their arguments, and the final answer was “once a decision has been made unfortunately it is irreversible”, and “it is not possible to reopen your account, and you won’t be able to open future HSBC current account”. So much for being the world’s local bank! I guess I need advice because: a) the bank account is my first and for a long time only personal account which has a lot of sentimental value to me, and to have it taken away in such a blunt manner without nearly enough justification is impersonal, intrusive, and downright absurd (and all for less than £20, with a £1,250 overdraft limit!!); b) Now that MCS is on my tail, could anybody advise what it’s going to do to my credit rating (Again, for less than £20!!)? I m planning to take out a mortgage in 1-2 years… L ; c) There has got to be somewhere I could complain about the whole situation? This looks to me a procedural injustice to say the least. I m not saying there is nothing I couldn’t have done better; but when the risk of something happening has not been outlined and communicated, it is surely not justifiable to inflict the consequence of such risk to a customer? And the branch manager had the cheek to say “all our decisions are carefully made, and once a decision has been made, HSBC will stand by it”. Which is basically “whatever we want to do is final, and you can just go and stuff yourself!” Would be interested hearing what you guys have to say. The irony here really is that I discovered all this when I was trying to settle this small “debt”… A massive thank you in advance! And Happy Christmas – not sure I ll have one now!

Hi there, This is my first post, so please be easy on me I have a small little problem, a CC debt of around 500 GBP (sorry, I don't have a pound sign on my laptop ). The situation is the following: I lived in the UK for about 5 years. I had a bank account and CC with HSBC, which I reguralry used, but I left the country in April 2009. On current account there was an overdraft of about 250 GBP and on my CC a debt of about 500 GBP. (I also had a Lloyds account with an overdraft of about 250 GBP, but that is ok, the online banking still works and I will pay it back, since I don't want to loose the account.) So I left the country not really caring about all those accounts, I thought I'd paid them back when I had money and a job. I am in Austria now, and since I finally found a job and will start working on Monday, I wanted to check what the situation is with the banks. ( I know it took me long to find a job, I guess I had a long holiday ). HSBC has closed my current account and canceled my CC. I still have my Savings account with 0 GBP on it. I called the bank, they said they closed the account and transferred my debt to their collection agency, Metropolitan. When I called Metropolitan, they told me that the debt was now with Moorcroft and I need to give them a call. So when I called Moorcroft, I told them what the situation was and that I am not living in the UK any more but I will be able to pay back my debt in a month or two. According to their records I have an outstanding balance of 555,11 GBP. Now my question and problem is: How do I know where this 555,11 came from, and if this is the amount I should be paying? What about that other overdraft of about 250 ? Did that just disappear? Is that possible? (I wouldn't mind ). And what is the guarantee that I don't need to pay anything more than this when I paid it? I read around the forums and found that I can request a CCA. So I called them up (Moorcroft) and asked for one. The lady started asking for my details and address and everything, but I explained to her that I don't have an address in the UK any more, and I would like this CCA to be sent to my new address in Vienna, Austria where I live now. She told me that it's not a problem, just send the letter and 1 GBP. Should I send cash in the post? Do you think it was a good idea to get a CCA? I wonder if anyone has experience when it comes to this situation? Eg. left the country, but would like to settle my debt. Any help or advise would be appreciated! I did search the forums but didn't find anything that would resebmle my situation. Thanks a lot