HSBC Changing all Bank accounts

mintedmatty

Inactive I believe is correct, I guess tho this is just the way it goes? it would be interesting to see how many people actually fall into the under £500 bracket? as someone posted further up i think? it breaks down to £115 a week? if someone only pays that into their account? that persons account activity isnt going to be sky high

Mrs_Ryan

What about part-time workers? Pensioners on an old age pension? People unable to work for whatever reason - say disabled people who have a disability that stops them working.

All likely to pay in less than £500 per month but may well use their account regularly. When I worked part-time due to having to look after my disabled partner I paid less than £500 per month into my account but used it daily for bus fares etc, and I still had bills to pay from that. Inactive is right - this isnt fair. Like I said previously, HSBC dont like 'undesirable' customers as my mum and dad found out - they would have paid in about £1100 a month into their account and despite the fact my mum has a perfect credit rating - and has at least four credit cards and had a Maestro with cheque guarantee held elsewhere, they refused them anything better than a basic account due to the fact they dont work (dad is retired,and mum medically retired) and claim benefit!!! Petty, petty, petty..........still, their loss, Lloyds TSB and Alliance and Leicester's gain!!!

GrammarGirl

I have a quick question about my HSBC overdraft... currently I have a graduate account with an overdraft limit of £1,500 (first £1,000 interest free). Unfortunately (due to my own stupid overspending) I've been unable to get into credit since I graduated over a year ago, and am in no better situation now than I was as a new graduate. I have a regular income but am finding it impossible to get out of my overdraft... I'm just going round in circles.

Would it be wise to open a different current account, have my wages paid into that and just pay a lump sum into my HSBC account so my overdraft begins to go down? I find it so difficult to reduce my overdraft when every penny of my earnings is eaten up by it. I know it takes careful budgeting, but could having two current accounts make this easier for me?

Any advice appreciated!

Lokolo

Inactive wrote: »

But, you are missing the point, would you believe, not everybody has £500 a month paid in, some have less, they will still use their account regularly, but with less facilities than they had before.


That in my book is treating them as second class customers.:rolleyes:

Thats because the customers are treating the bank as their second class bank!!!!!

You're basically saying if I treat someone badly you expect them to treat you as a 1st class friend. *sigh*

£500 a month is £6k a year, no-one can live off that. Everyone working will be earning more than that (unless part time, will explain that bit later).

The simple fact is people who aren't using their account properly are the ones suffering and they are hardly suffering at that because they are hardly using their accounts.

Parttimers - even if they are on part time they will have money elsewhere, i.e. partners, job support etc. etc. so if say their partner, then they will have all the things, why would you need them also?

OAPs - they will still have their pension coming in and to be honest, the only thing OAPs will be losing will be the paper statements, they are extremely unlikely to need a cheque gaureentee card, monilink services, or phone 24/7 services. Paper statements they can still get from branch - which OAPs tend to visit anyway.

----

Mrs Ryan - why would HSBC want to give them a credit card when soon enough they may not have any proof of HSBC? If your parents then couldn't afford to pay back overdraft the bank is losing out. HSBC do not take as bigger risks.

If Lloyds took them on, then gave them a £1k OD, then your parents couldn't get it back, who would lose out? Lloyds. They are taking a risk having your parents as customers.

Why do you think we have credit ratings and such!?

mintedmatty

Yep lokolo you summed it up! i said further up the board HSBC are a middle of the road bank, very little risk because they can afford to be and dont need to puch the boat out to get customers! and no matter how many people leave in 'disgust' the reputation and brand name HSBC will always attract more customers than it loses!!


Grammargirl? it depends? at the end of the day the money you earn each month wouldnt change if you had a seperate BA? where is your wage going? outgoings etc? are you disciplined enough not to touch your wage? many factors dictate what i would advice, even then it might not suit you personally!



Mrs Ryan unfort your parents were a 'victim' of that policy, but thats the way it goes unfort?+

Mrs_Ryan

Lokolo wrote: »

Thats because the customers are treating the bank as their second class bank!!!!!

You're basically saying if I treat someone badly you expect them to treat you as a 1st class friend. *sigh*

£500 a month is £6k a year, no-one can live off that. Everyone working will be earning more than that (unless part time, will explain that bit later).

The simple fact is people who aren't using their account properly are the ones suffering and they are hardly suffering at that because they are hardly using their accounts.

Parttimers - even if they are on part time they will have money elsewhere, i.e. partners, job support etc. etc. so if say their partner, then they will have all the things, why would you need them also?

OAPs - they will still have their pension coming in and to be honest, the only thing OAPs will be losing will be the paper statements, they are extremely unlikely to need a cheque gaureentee card, monilink services, or phone 24/7 services. Paper statements they can still get from branch - which OAPs tend to visit anyway.

----

Mrs Ryan - why would HSBC want to give them a credit card when soon enough they may not have any proof of HSBC? If your parents then couldn't afford to pay back overdraft the bank is losing out. HSBC do not take as bigger risks.

If Lloyds took them on, then gave them a £1k OD, then your parents couldn't get it back, who would lose out? Lloyds. They are taking a risk having your parents as customers.

Why do you think we have credit ratings and such!?

So you're saying that because they dont work they shouldnt have a proper bank account??? thats a load of rubbish. I could lose my job tomorrow and then a fair few companies would lose all the money they have lent me!!!

They had a £500 OD at Lloyds that was never used once. The balance of their account never went below £1000. (in credit) She had proof of this - 5 years worth of statements from Yorkshire Bank (her bank) showing that her account balance never went below £1000. They are now with Alliance and Leicester, and have an equally large overdraft. Again, never used. My mum has credit cards with £10,000 limits that she has absolutely no problems at all paying. They have thousands of pounds worth of savings accumulated from my mum's former job (Registered Mental Nurse) and my dad's former job as a Local Government Officer. My mum's credit rating is perfect. Both her and my dad are on benefits for life. Their income will not change and if one should die (god forbid) they have the arrangements in place to pay off all debts.

You were saying?? They still shouldnt have credit or debit cards and only a basic cash card should they???

Lokolo

As I said earlier, no-one can live in £6k. You stated that you had a part time job and this wouldn't have taken you over the £6k. However there is no way you supported yourself and your partner on this part time.

I suspect that your partner got disability allownace? Why could you not have a joint account? This would easily take over the £6k boundary.

And even with that, I suspect customers such like yourselves are outweighed by customers like me, who will actually gain from this. Otherwise they wouldn't be doing it.

I imagine a lot of people who now move away from HSBC actually won't care one bit because its not their primary account.

And about your parents, banks want security for the future. Why do you think deposits and gaurentees are required on mortgages? For the future!

Theres no way to determine that your parents would have been able to pay back an OD if they had got into one with HSBC, thats what HSBCs worry is. They don't want that risk within their business.

Yeh I agree sometimes it is completely unfair but its their choice unfortunately. If they had their cash card for numerous years they could then go into the bank, and say well actually i've been using my account for a while now and want to upgrade etc.etc. this is more likely to work.

Mrs_Ryan

They have a Platinum Visa Debit account with Lloyds and a Premier 50 with A&L... with a £250 cheque guarantee and a £100 cheque guarantee limit debit cards respectively. As a postscript to this, my mum went to close my dad's account with HSBC, and they actually did backtrack and admit they were wrong and they should have been offered the full account. They did an application and they were approved with a £750 od and (platinum, I belive) credit card but my mum told them to get lost! (she had the last laugh there.)
And yes my OH does get disability allowance. We dont have a joint account because my acct was elsewhere and I was paying off my student debt to (HSBC) at the time. He did have a full account with them at the time, I might add he earns in excess of 20k a year and he had a Solo card until recently (not because theres anything wrong with his credit rating either - again its perfect.) He did get a Maestro out of them at first attempt but he's told them to get lost now as well... after 20 years as his account was rubbish!

GrammarGirl

mintedmatty wrote: »

Grammargirl? it depends? at the end of the day the money you earn each month wouldnt change if you had a seperate BA? where is your wage going? outgoings etc? are you disciplined enough not to touch your wage? many factors dictate what i would advice, even then it might not suit you personally!

Thanks mintedmatty... I think my reasoning for wanting a separate bank account is because at the moment I'm really not making a significant progress on my OD. If I had another account with a positive balance that I could use to pay my outgoings, I could then dedicate part of my wages each month to paying off my OD. Does that reasoning make sense? At the moment I'm technically not setting any amount aside to pay off my overdraft... if I have some wage left at the end of the month it goes towards it but like I said, not much progress is being made!

ahai1

I have changed my mind and decided to come back to the debate.

Isn't the real reason for this to do with them saving money from customers who don't use the accounts often to cover their looses in the mortgage sector? Here is a Guardian article. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/aug/04/hsbcholdingsbusiness.banking1