Bloomin HSBC - grad account to normal account

aimex

Hi all,

After all the posts about the confusing letters from HSBC back in july - i received them too re the overdraft, i have just logged on to find a warning in red which states "charges will be applied to your account".

Have now spoken with customer services advisor who say that this is for debit interest -ie interest on overdraft since 31st July. I will check when im home but im sure i had a letter in July which stated that overdraft would remain interest free until November 2008.

Im so annoyed as was only overdrawn to stooze my isa and only by £500! and i know charge is low (£3.70 from 31 July to 13th August) but its not really the point - HSBC should have provided clarity in the first place.

Anyone else had the same?

x

sunray499

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Not quite the same circumstances but also a problem with HSBC's lack of clarity. Having experienced some financial difficulties, we wrote a cheque for approx $4000 from my wife's USA account to cover our immediate essential outgoings. In the past HSBC had sent all such cheques for negotiation but on this occassion they sent it for collection. After eight weeks and no sign of our cash - and lots of excuses - we contacted Wells Fargo after HSBC had told us the delay was with them. Within minutes Wells Fargo emailed us all details of the transaction showing that funds were transferred to HSBC immediately. After many contradictory excuses HSBC revealed that the funds were held by HSBC in New York - claiming that this was their entitlement. The US banking ombudsman (comptroller of the currency) tells us that it is illegal for any bank in the USA to hold on to customers funds for over 24 hours and advised that we took legal advice in the USA. In the meantime items were returned and we ran up bank charges. On a second occassion they held onto approx £1,000 for over four weeks. Charges over this second period were reluctantly refunded but the bank's attitude was that it could do what it wanted in accordance with its own guidelines. Since then items have been sent for negotiation until last week when my wife wrote herself a cheque for $700 (approx £350) as there was a delay in her receiving a payment from work, and this was sent for collection. No one at HSBC can (or will) give her a reason and we have been told that we might have wait up to four weeks or more for our funds despite the fact that Wells Fargo have advised us that they have already transferred the funds to HSBC. Not to miss an oppotunity, HSBC did offer my wife a £200 overdraft for a cost of £100 which they deducted from her account immediately!

Can anyone tell me if HSBC is acting within the law? It certainly seems immoral if not illegal.

mjoyeux

aimex wrote: »

Hi all,

After all the posts about the confusing letters from HSBC back in july - i received them too re the overdraft, i have just logged on to find a warning in red which states "charges will be applied to your account".

Have now spoken with customer services advisor who say that this is for debit interest -ie interest on overdraft since 31st July. I will check when im home but im sure i had a letter in July which stated that overdraft would remain interest free until November 2008.

Im so annoyed as was only overdrawn to stooze my isa and only by £500! and i know charge is low (£3.70 from 31 July to 13th August) but its not really the point - HSBC should have provided clarity in the first place.

Anyone else had the same?

x

If it's any consolation, I'm in the same boat. I was told that my grad account would remain interest free for three years. Two years later because of a change to their terms and conditions they were now going to charge me interest.

I've now left the HSBC and feel a lot better for it, I know they won't miss me... but satisfaction can be achieved in many ways ;-)

Terms and conditions only apply seemingly when they want them to...