HSBC & Payplan

[hsbc angery customer]

Hi,

 

I have debts of £15,300 with HSBC. About 6 months ago after struggling to keep up minimum payments i turned to Payplan, and have since been making about £230 a month towards my bank account, my flexiloan and my credit card. The debt is just getting bigger and bigger.

 

I have already written asking for my charges back, which i have been told will be refunded if the court case goes in the favour of the customers.

 

I have had no luck with getting interest and charges stopped or even reduced with Payplan, so I am in the middle of writing a letter saying I am not making anymore payments due to the fact that my continued dialogue with HSBC hasnt gotten me anywhere.

 

Ideally I would like the charges refunded and interest frozen so I can start clearing the debt as i want to move on with my life!

 

Any tips on my plan? If anyone has any advice or experience or anything to add to my letter I would be very keen to hear.

 

Many Thanks

Steve

[lee32uk]

I would get your claim in regardless of what the bank tells you.I am currently claiming back overdraft charges and i have my claim in at the court (with 8% interest).

 

Seeing as though you have already written to them, you should send them a letter before action and give them 14days to reply.When they reply saying no then its time to fill out your N1 court form

 

Have a look at my HSBC Overdraft thread

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/185713-hsbc-overdraft-charges.html

[hsbc angery customer]

Thanks Lee, I will do. I have been lurking here in the background for some time, and written many a letter to HSBC, and have got nowhere. I would love to be able to sit infront of someone who actually has some authority to make a decision, so i can thrash out a reasonable arrangement and then we could both stop wasting so much time on this. Thats why i am thinking of stopping all payments to HSBC, and writing a SAR, then waiting to go to court. I dont want to go bankrupt and I am willing to pay what I have borrowed, i just feel sick that its damaging my personal life when I have bent over backwards to sort this out, i am aiming to get charges refunded and interest frozen, then i can stop wasting time writing letters and do more overtime to throw at this debt!

[johnnymitch]

Welcome to the forum angery

 

Lee is absolutely right , you need to presson with getting your claim into court for the following reasons :

 

When you start to send off your letters, they will probably try to tell you you can't claim because the case's are 'stayed' It is important that you ignore this and carry on, only the courts can put a 'stay' on your claim

 

Although the banks have a ongoing test case with OFT there are a number of reasons why you should start to claim at court now

 

Any older charges (coming up to 6 years) could be lost if you wait for the OFT case to end. Start your claim now and those charges are protected

 

you are supposed to be protected by the 'waiver', we now know you are not

 

When the stays are finally lifted, you will be one of the first in the queue to get paid

 

Once the courts are involved, you get the 8% interest

 

While the banks are protected by the stays, we the consumer, have no such protection and charges continue to mount up

 

For some people this may mean going into default. If it is clear that the default was made in respect of charges and that it was lodged after a charges claim was begun then these users have a really excellent chance of having it removed

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/data-protection-default-issues/164871-castlebests-default-removal.html#post1772646

 

Sorry , getting rid of font marks ..... lol!

By all means come back and ask if you need any more help angery ..... someone will answer , and we're user-friendly on here........

[johnnymitch]

Doh! I should have looked at lee's thread first -I said all that on there ....

[lee32uk]

Doh! I should have looked at lee's thread first -I said all that on there ....

 

 

Old age ???? :D:p

[johnnymitch]

Cheeky young whippersnapper ! and to think I just tipped your scales too ...........

 

But you're probably right ......

[hsbc angery customer]

Thanks Guys, I will press on with the getting the charges back.

 

Any advice or experiences of stopping my payments to HSBC, whats the point when it all goes on charges and interest, then get passed to a dca where no charges and interest is stopped.

[questioning]

I stopped paying HSBC, I had no choice really, we had to have something to live on.

They eventually stopped interest.

Perhaps if you were to stop paying and explain via letter that you can see no end to this debt if they won't freeze interest blah blah blah, then they might think about it.

At the moment they are loving you,

You are paying them each month and they are charging you each month, talk about cake and eating it.

If I were you I would stop and see if after a few weeks you could negotiate a plan where they freeze interest and charges.

You could always start paying again if you wanted.

The call is yours. Don't worry that they will take legal action in the first instance, they won't. and as I said you can always start paying again.

I think the letters asking to freeze all charging on accounts are often ignored by HSBC, but once you throw in the fact that you have stopped paying, it might just do the trick.

Others may disagree with me, all I can say is what I would try.

Oh and definitely get your bank charges case into the court, as advised already by the good people of the forum.

Good luck,

cheers Q.x.

PS. In our case our HSBC cc debt's have been sold to a DCA after being passed around for a couple of years. HSBC did take us to court for our OD, BUT this was after three years of ignoring them completely and not paying a penny. We defended and the case is stayed, long story.

Just showing in our case they didn't take any legal action for years and we had Ignored them for all those years, so its to be expected really.

Hope this helps, its up to you , this is just my experience with HSBC,

Edited March 25, 2009 by questioning
grammer was rubbish, a little easier to undersrtand now I hope.

[johnnymitch]

Maybe you should think about opening a 'Parachute' account angery, - i.e. one with a completely different bank , where you use it for day to day Income & Expenditure ...... but don't go overdrawn . Then you can service the debt to HSBC under your own terms .... by Standing Order or regular payment of what you can afford from your new Account......

 

I wouldn't advise you to stop paying completely, unless the amount you owe is less than the amount they owe you in charges........ then any further charges they owe can be added up to when you submit your claim to court .

 

Also , when you send off the Prelim letter asking for it back , that puts your account 'In Dispute' and they can't (or shouldn't) pass it to a DCA.

 

Your aim should be to get your claim to the 'stayed in court' stage as soon as possible, then if they chase you for payment your counterclaim is waiting for them and they won't go there ..........

 

Have a look at this link :

 

Parachute Account

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/general/13832-do-you-need-parachute.html

[questioning]

Yep, Advice from Johnnymitch is spot on, he is an expert in this area of reclaiming.

It all depends if you can afford to keep paying or not,

Good luck Q.x.

[johnnymitch]

Thanks for that Q , - don't know about being an expert but I try .... LOL!

 

The reason I say not to stop payments altogether is, that if it does go to court, you can prove to a judge that you did everything possible to service the debt..... judges tend to frown a bit on people who just stop paying....

[questioning]

Yes, thats true, the judge will frown on me, and if he's an old duffer of a judge I bet he frowns on everyone.

It all depends on ones circumstances at the end of the day.

[johnnymitch]

It all depends on ones circumstances at the end of the day.

 

Absolutely , Q.... but if you have a parachute account , you can decide how much you can afford to give them,(if any) not just let them take what they want ....

Also , if courts are fixing repayment rates , it's pretty amazing sometimes how lenient they are as to what they think you can afford to pay, after taking all your living expenses into account. So if you absolutely can't afford it they're likely to agree with you .....

[hsbc angery customer]

Hi Guys,

 

thanks for your feedback I really appreciate it. I have already opened a parachute account and havent used the HSBC accounts for 6 months, just been paying money in via payplan (all of which is swallowed up in fees and interest!)

 

Well i have just written a follow up letter to my wifes (now closed HSBC account) which is owed about £300 in charges.

 

Just reading through the forums to find any tips on getting the interest frozen - thats whats killing me!

[Castlebest]

Old age ???? :D:p

 

Cheeky young whippersnapper ! and to think I just tipped your scales too ...........

 

But you're probably right ......

 

Looks like the next gerneration is comming along nicely

 

pete

[johnnymitch]

Yeah ! Gladdens the heart pete , to know there are people as feisty as you coming along ........ lee is learning well ........ - a bit of respect for her elders wouldn't go wrong though :lol: