steve! vs HSBC

[steve!]

Hi all,

 

I'm about to embark on a mission to recover banking charges on behalf of someone else (my sister). HSBC have been (edit) her blind for a few years now, and have even been dipping into her savings account to pay for her charges. She thinks she's been charged thousands by now, and she's now got a baby to support and she's struggling to find the money to decorate her house.

 

Is it OK to do it on behalf of someone else? And I can't quite figure out the best address to post the letter to. Is it OK to post the letter to the local branch or even go in there myself?

 

Regards,

 

Stephen

[jonni2bad]

Welcome aboard.

 

Yes, you can act on behalf of someone else.

 

If you prefer, you can send correspondance to the branch, or even hand it in (making sure you get receipts).

 

Are you starting with a request for list of charges? (DPA Request)

 

If so, don't forget to include the £10 fee

 

Best of luck

[steve!]

Yep, I need a list of the charges first. I think I'll go in to the branch. Good point about the receipt. I'll make sure I post updates in this thread.

 

It's also for my sister's birthday present plus I'm on a moral crusade. I can't stand how banks get so much money from people who don't have it to begin with. Also, can anyone verify if a bank would take from an associated savings account to automatically pay the charges? I did question my sister about this because I thought she might be mistaken, but she seemed pretty sure.

[steve!]

I took the letter to my HSBC branch, but because my sister hadn't signed it they said no. I've now posted the letter to my sister, along with instructions to sign it, write a cheque for £10 and to send it recorded delivery. I've even included an addressed envelope too.

 

If anyone's interested, the address my HSBC branch gave me to send the letter was:

 

Service Quality Team

Arlington Business Centre

Millshaw Park Lane

Leeds

LS11 0PP

 

I just called her as well to let her know, and I didn't know how bad she was with money. She's got an MBNA card too, and that's got £4,500 on it at 24.9% APR! And she's only making the minimum paymet. Apparently the interest has knocked her over the limit and she's got charges with them too. I'll get cracking on those people depending on how HSBC goes. I just wish banks would stop lending money to my stupid sister!

[steve!]

HSBC have now had the DPA letter since June 21st, so if they've got 40 days then that gives them until July 31st to furnish my sister with the information.

[maverik1979]

I took the letter to my HSBC branch, but because my sister hadn't signed it they said no. I've now posted the letter to my sister, along with instructions to sign it, write a cheque for £10 and to send it recorded delivery. I've even included an addressed envelope too.

 

If anyone's interested, the address my HSBC branch gave me to send the letter was:

 

Service Quality Team

Arlington Business Centre

Millshaw Park Lane

Leeds

LS11 0PP

 

I just called her as well to let her know, and I didn't know how bad she was with money. She's got an MBNA card too, and that's got £4,500 on it at 24.9% APR! And she's only making the minimum paymet. Apparently the interest has knocked her over the limit and she's got charges with them too. I'll get cracking on those people depending on how HSBC goes. I just wish banks would stop lending money to my stupid sister!

 

they prey on the weak

[maverik1979]

HSBC have now had the Data Protection Act letter since June 21st, so if they've got 40 days then that gives them until July 31st to furnish my sister with the information.

 

dont be surprised if it goes right to the 40 days

[steve!]

they prey on the weak

... "weak" is one of many words to describe my sister. She's estimated she's had £2,000-£4,000 worth of charges from HSBC. She said when she gets the money she's going to get a conservatory. When I suggested she might use it to pay off her MBNA card, she looked at me like I'd just beamed down from another planet.

 

But still, the law's the law, and if the little guys have to obey it, then so must the big boys. She got a letter back from HSBC this morning saying they'll start to send her the statements. They also said as a gesture of goodwill that they will waive the £10 fee. Presumably they'd seen that DPA template enough to know what's coming. I'm guessing they're trying to soften her up.

[maverik1979]

... "weak" is one of many words to describe my sister. She's estimated she's had £2,000-£4,000 worth of charges from HSBC. She said when she gets the money she's going to get a conservatory. When I suggested she might use it to pay off her MBNA card, she looked at me like I'd just beamed down from another planet.

 

But still, the law's the law, and if the little guys have to obey it, then so must the big boys. She got a letter back from HSBC this morning saying they'll start to send her the statements. They also said as a gesture of goodwill that they will waive the £10 fee. Presumably they'd seen that Data Protection Act template enough to know what's coming. I'm guessing they're trying to soften her up.

 

nah its just a standard response letter, i must admit when i found out how much i would be claiming i thought of cool toys, but i've grown up an awfull lot since my daughter was born, and with this money i am going to wipe the slate clean, ofcourse anything left over might be nice

[Hedgehog]

Sod wipe the slate clean....Disney Land here I come!!!!

[maverik1979]

lol

[steve!]

Hi all, I'm a bit stuck!

 

I've got all my sister's statements, but because I'm not au fait with getting bank charges, I don't know what charges I can and can't recover.

 

For example:

 

Recall S/O-D/D: £30

Am I right in thinking this is where a SO or DD has bounced, so they charged her £30?

 

Unpaid item: £30

What's that?

 

Card misuse: £10

I'm pretty sure she wasn't wiping her bum with it! I'm guessing the reasons could be quite broad, but can we claim this back?

 

Total charges: £72

This is the one that baffles me the most. The charge can vary in size as well but it doesn't seem to be calculated from anything on the statements. On one place it says "DR / Total Charges / To 07OCT2004" and that's from a statement dated 9th October to 8th Novemeber (2004). I added up all the charges leading up to that date, and they're well over £100, and the balance shows that the "Total charges" thing is taken in addition to all the other charges.

 

I'm stumped. Any ideas, people?

[cherryc]

hi Steve

 

i'm just about to embark on reclaiming my charges, i was just wondering, which letter do you send to ask for a list of charges, is it the S.10 Data Protection Act notice - if you have been defaulted for unlawful penalties? and do the statements they send you list all charges, dating back six years, or just the previous charges? i was thinking it's bound to be easier than trying to calculate it all on the internet!

 

hope your claim is going well..... wish someone would sort mine out for me, your sister is very lucky indeed!

 

cherry

[loz]

Hi Steve,

As far as i can see, you can claim all of those items, including "Total charges" if they are an individual transaction on your statement (as opposed to being on the cover page as a summary).

 

Loz

[cherryc]

i don't know if my last post posted properly or not?! i was wondering, when writing the letter requesting my statements, who do i make the £10 cheque payable to?!

 

also Steve, this page is really helpful for letting you know what you can and can't claim for..... it helped me anyway

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/15518-charges-description-statements-please.html

 

good luck

[steve!]

Cherry: Bullseye, many thanks.

 

You make the cheque payable to HSBC, and you send the Data Protection Act request thingie. What they'll then do is just send you all the statements for the last 6 years (or whatever it is you've asked for). When my sister got hers she just went through highlighting all the charges, and now muggins here is going to enter them into that spreadsheet.

[cherryc]

you're more than welcome, i've since posting claculated the money i'm going to claim via the power or on line statements, so i can jump a step ahead hopefully, i'm now just having a problem trying to find the spreadsheet on here to enter my details in to.

 

also, once having entered said details in to the spreadsheet, do both that and the letter get sent to the same address you used above?

[steve!]

Hi Cherry, yes, you're supposed to send the request along with a schedule of all your charges using one of the spreadsheets:

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/182-interest-calculation-spreadsheets.html

 

In the end, I sent my letter to their head office:

 

HSBC Bank plc

8 Canada Square

London E14 5HQ

[steve!]

Just to update everyone, I've just totted up my sister's charges, and I'll be requesting £2,894.50. We were anticipating about £3,000, so that's not far off.

 

Am I to understand we can also claim interest @ 8% APR? On MSE it says you can, but on the sticky for the spreadsheet thread it says not to ask for it straight away:

If you send the bank a letter before you have given them time to pay up demanding 8% APR they will know that you do not know what you are doing and this will more than likely end up with you NOT getting your money back.

So at which stage do we apply all the interest? As some charges go back to 2000, there's quite a sizeable amount to claim.

[steve!]

Hi all,

 

HSBC replied to the preliminary approach and they offered £2,000 if we'd just leave them alone!

 

This will be declined of course, but I'm not sure on which letter to send. We haven't even sent the LBA yet, only the preliminary approach.

 

'elp!

[un1boy]

That's great you got an offer at that stage though - I bet they've got fed up of paying DG all this money for nothing, eh?

[steve!]

Hi guys,

 

We're still battling this out! I can't believe how long it's taking.

 

HSBC did make a full offer, but they said they would only pay it into my sister's bank account, even though we requested a cheque. They're disputing this, and we got so fed up with them saying they won't send a cheque that we just sent them the LBA and then finally filed the court claim.

 

They're now defending this and my sister has a letter from the court asking for another £100 as allegedly HSBC want to see this through (?). Can anyone allay our fears or let us know if this is normal? Have we made a booboo by refusing the money into her current account and insisting on a cheque?

[un1boy]

Hmm..I am not sure about this. I read somewhere that if you are offered a full setlement you MUST accept it.

 

Personally, I would let them put it in the account and then moved it - it would have cleared immediately if they had put it in your account. Getting a cheque takes longer.

 

Although, with my dad's lloyds charges he requested a cheque in my name and they sent it! So, I don't know really mate, sorry - I'll try to look around and see what I can find.

 

Might be worth you PM'ing a mod or something.

[BankFodder]

The allocation questionnaire stage is qquite normal. Donn't worry about that.

Presumably this is your sister's claim?

 

You are saying that they now deny that they refused to give you a cheque. Do you have any written evidnce of this?

[steve!]

Hi BankFodder,

 

Yes, it's my sister's claim. They offered to give her the money in full, but only by paying it into her bank account when she wanted a cheque.

 

They said they would only pay up but not if it involved a cheque. We do ask for a cheque in one of the letters, but they still won't.

 

When they sent the letter saying they'd pay in full, they asked my sister to fill out a form which she did, but I told her to alter the agreement to say a cheque was necessary instead. So they sent her the form again telling her she didn't fill it out properly.

 

She called them to discuss and gave them a choice: cheque or court.

 

They still said no and that she can do what she likes.