Second Letter to bank

[bluwind]

just wondered what people thought of my second letter to my bank?

They have already replied to me stating that all there fees/charges where legal (even though i never contested this)

 

The Senior Manager

Service Quality Team

HSBC Bank Plc

Arlington business Centre

Millshaw Park Lane

Leeds

LS11 0PP

 

I write with regards to Your letter dated 21st January 2011 dispatched by “Laura Downing” who is one of your Service Improvement Officers, I would like you to have another look into my case regarding bank charges made against my account, I would also like to point out at this stage that I am not contesting the validity of any bank charges made against my account. The well documented “Test Case” has already proven these charges to be valid.

However it is my understanding that the Financial Ombudsman is still looking at cases which meet certain criteria the first being “financial hardship” (please note that this is financial hardship at the time of receiving charges and not current financial status). As I am sure you are already aware HSBC Bank is one of many banks who signed an agreement to treat all customers fairly who are in financial difficulty. I now reference the banking code 2008 with regards to proving hardship

1 - “regular requests for increased borrowing”, I increased my overdraft limit 4 times in three years and was refused an increase on 5 occasions within the same period making a total of 9 occasions for increased credit applications in three years.

2 – “repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement”, this became an almost monthly ritual as I struggled to make ends meet, even more so as I was unemployed for the first quarter of receiving charges. Once I paid my bills, rent and council tax I had little enough for food and because of receiving charges I was left short.

3 – “Receiving more than £500 per year in bank charges”, this one needs little explanation and I believe we can both agree my yearly charges more than doubled this figure.

Also as per my last letter to you I would like to reiterate again that I was caught in a constant cycle of charges, each month my income was severely reduced by charges owed to yourself leaving me short and forcing me go overdraft again. Please find included with this letter yearly financial statements showing my Incomings and outgoings.

Please also note that I do not wish you to close this case as resolved until I have expressly wished you to do so. I would consider a refund or partial refund of fees/charges as a resolution (depending on the amount of partial refund)

[MARTIN3030]

The Banking code was replaced by the Lending Code.

You are correct to say that the FOS is dealing with cases where the banks have failed to address hardship.

When did you send the first letter ?

If 8 weeks has gone by or else they have given a final response,then I would open a complaint with the FOS.

[bluwind]

O the case was only opened on the 20th jan, i couldnt believe it, i wrote the letter at 10am, posted at 3.30 on the 20th. they wrote back on the 21st and i received the letter this morning. so its only been open 3 days..

i will change my wording to the lending code. thank you for that, i couldnt believe how fast they responded and they even put in there letter "after reviewing your case"..of course it must have been a speedy review.

of course if i need to go to the omnidsbudman then the fact they took less than 12 hours to write a response must go in my favour that they havent reviewed the case properly

[MARTIN3030]

Yes it looks like they just saw bank charges and didnt bother reading it through.

What you have is a templated letter.

We do know that the banks are being monitored now for response times for complaints-in fact they must now submit figures and the regulators have come down on them.

The FOS actually published figures/stats for year end 2010 not long ago.

I was looking at it and it does show an increase in its cases for hardship complaints.

I am sure that if you get the wording right and its picked up by the right person-they will deal.

One more thing I would suggest-at the end of your letter-ask them to forward a copy of their complaints procedure in compliance with your rights to have them.

send recorded and keep a copy.

Keep us posted.

[bluwind]

I certainly will keep everyone here posted martin, thanks for the advice. Ill add it to my letter.

[bluwind]

Hi all, i have just received another letter from the bank - another standard template. Even though i addressed the last one to the senior manager i still got a reply for service improvement officer., the letter basically went on to yet again 'boast' about winning the test case and that they can only look into charges for the past 6 months. i have written a reply but just wanted to ask if people think i should just go stright to the FSO now

 

My reply

THIS LETTER IS FOR THE ATTENTION OF THE SERVICE MANAGER, I DO NOT AUTHORISE ANYONE UNDER THE SENIORITY LEVEL OF A SERVICE MANAGER TO VIEW THE CONTENTS OF THIS LETTER.

Firstly I would like to apologise for the above statement, how I do feel it was necessary as my last letter was address for the attention of a senior manager and was dealt with by a ‘Service Improvement Officer’. The following is a list of questions/statements which I required answers to which were either not answered or even acknowledged in HSBC’s last correspondence:

1. I stated in my last letter that I am not contesting the validity of any bank charges against my account yet your “Service Improvement Officer” chose to waste an entire paragraph confirming something I already knew.

2. Your “Service Improvement Officer” the proceeded to explain that I would be required to complete an income and expenditure assessment to better understand my financial situation over the past 6 months. This was asked even though in my last letter I explained to yourselves that any financial assessment would be for the time of receiving charges and not current financial status.

3. Quote: “if we do not hear from you within the next eight weeks, we will consider matters resolved”. Your “Service Improvement Officer” chose to include this statement even though in my last letter I said “Please also note that I do not wish you to close this case as resolved until I have expressly wished you to do so.” May it is up to myself the complainant to decide when my case is resolved.

4. Please have a copy of my last letter address to yourself to hand as I wish to refer to it. I have already proven on 3 counts my financial hardship referenced in my last letter as 1 - “regular requests for increased borrowing”, 2 – “repeatedly exceeding a credit card or overdraft limit without agreement”, 3 – “Receiving more than £500 per year in bank charges”. So I will not be completing an income and expenditure assessment as I have already proved financial hardship at the time the charges were received.

Let me clarify what I am looking for as a resolution, the current balance of my account is £1021.06 in Debit, balance this against the charges I received between December 05 and December 08 which stands at £3055. I would like my account to be closed with a £0 balance and a cheque for £2033.94.

Thank you

[MARTIN3030]

Ok thanks for update.

Let me have a look again at events so far....give me 5 mins.

[bluwind]

wow thanks very much for that martin, im sure most everyone here feels they are hitting the heads against brick walls. Its just so fustrating as i was debt free before joining HSBC, luckily enough i opened a new account with Nationwide, found a new job and spent the last year and a half on beans on toast paying off the debts i built up because of them. I am finally comming to a stage where i see an end to the past 6 years of debt (and i know so many people have so much more debt haning over there heads and a really feel for anyone going through it), but it just winds me up that hsbc say they base my Hardship on my situation now.

 

Anyway sorry for the misplaced rant.. your a diamond martin. ill send it off and see what kind of response i get

[MARTIN3030]

Great I see where you are coming from these forums are full of stories the same.

In consideration that we dont give HSBC any heads up before dealing with you-I will temp unapprove the post and restore it later.

If you didnt get a paste let me know.

Lets see what comes back.