HSBC Changing all Bank accounts

ahai1

I am willing to take a risk on bonds and stock market but I would like a little bit more to save. As far as I am concerend everything else besides my flexible saver and current account is savings. So that means the ISA, credit union and the online bonus saver. In fact the bulk of money is in those 3 it is just day to day money plus a few months extra in case I need the money at short notice and don't want to lose the interest or touch the money until I really need to.

SimonM_2

Just to update everyone to my earlier posts (P15 of this topic on Oct 31st), the issues raised to HSBC are still ongoing and largely un-answered or no clearer. At the start of November I was advised to contact the Quality Service team to raise a complaint about how my issue was being dealt with, and have since received a letter from HSBC saying it was being investigated, and then a reply to only a couple of points I'd raised. It'd seem the full set of "questions" wern't recorded as such.

I've written back to HSBC, notifying them in writing (as I have done over the phone a number of times since October) about the fact that I feel they'll be in breach of the T&C's on December 1st if my account is changed over. Today I received a telephone call from HSBC who seemed to initially be covering the points in the letter they sent to me (almost following it up to see if the case was closed now the letter had been received - and no, it isn't at all!) and then after I started to ask if they'd got the points I re-confirmed to them by phone last week then that list of points was worked through over the phone. But still no further on, although the person who called me seemed to go from heavily defending HSBC at the start of the call to confused and concerned towards the end and agreeing with what I was saying - probably because I know I'm right and can blatently illustrate where HSBC have made numerous confusing statements or not given details of something, or in the case of the regular saver account the information HSBC are supplying me is completely different to that on the website, as are the eligability criteria of the Current Account Advanced which says you "your salary/regular income paid directly into your bank account", yet the letter I received said the £500/month didn't have to be salary, and the person who called today wasn't aware of the salary/regular income requirement for the Current Account Advanced.

The person who called also said how the information I had received was "misleading"! How on earth can a bank send something relating to account changes and T&C changes that is "misleading"???

Apparently the T&C/eligability for the Regular Saver account is also incorrect due to miscommunication between departments at HSBC and is currently being changed to reflect the correct information. So that's another failing beyond the ones I've highlighted to them about the sections in the T&C's that are missing. The website is still showing the "wrong" information (according to the person I spoke to today) and is in the process of being updated... how can HSBC get themselves in to such a mess? :mad:

HSBC are to check a few more facts and get back to me within a few days, although with the December 1st date getting rapidly closer, and me repeating that they will be in breach of the T&C's on December 1st, they seem to be in a bit of a blind panic without actually knowing what to do. I'm NOT prepared to accept the answers over the phone though, and on both occasions of contacting the complaints team they've asked if I'd prefer phone or a letter for the answer and both occasions I've had people from HSBC try to call me instead of writing. It seems to me that HSBC don't really want to put their answer(s) in writing because they can see they've been caught out.

HSBC have agreed in writing that the T&Cs were incorrect and that the department responsible have taken steps to rectify it. But that doesn't directly help me and I've not received the rectified information. In basic terms the T&C's are VOID, for me and every other HSBC Bank Account customer who is being moved to one of the new Current Accounts. So why do ANY of us accept the changes? We simply shouldn't.

IF my account is changed over on December 1st and IF the T&C's are indeed breached by HSBC by them doing the change on that date (due to the lack of full and accurate information being supplied with at least 30 days notice), who do I go to next?

Is anyone else here in contact with HSBC with regards to the account chanegs and/or the incorrect T&Cs?

Lokolo

No. I don't see the problems? They said you have to have regular income, such as salary, of at least £500 a month into the account to get the advanced features.

I don't see how this is even the slightest bit hard to understand?

And why would I want to go to the advanced account? Because I get more than I get now, free text banking for starters.

SimonM_2

Lokolo wrote: »

No. I don't see the problems? They said you have to have regular income, such as salary, of at least £500 a month into the account to get the advanced features.

No, what HSBC said was "All you need to do to remain a Current Account Advance customer is to pay in more than £500 a month to your account(s)."

They've not put that it has to be a regular income such as salary. The letter received from HSBC the other day, in reply to my complaint, said it doesn't have to be a salary payment. However the website says that a salary is a requirement of applying for an account. I don't know if those same eligability points apply to me as an existing customer, as opposed to a new customer, and the person I spoke to today also wasn't sure (and didn't actually know that was a requirement of the Current Account Advanced).

My point to HSBC is that I don't know that I will have £500 salary every month being paid in. Currently I do, and I have for many months, but I need to know exactly the full details of what the changes involve and apply to me before I can make a decision about keeping my account and letting it change over or not.

But that (the eligability criteria) is only one of the many points that I've got concerns and questions about. Unlike you I'm not interested in the carrot of free telephone banking, and I'm more interested/bothered about the things that I'll be losing by going to the new Current Account Advanced and ultimately the Current Account if I no longer qualified for the Advanced one, as well as the points I've raised about the Regular Saver account. All I want is HSBC to clarify the points I've raised and confirm them in writing so I've got something to fall back on in future - it's no good having someone who doesn't know for sure telling me over the phone they "think it works" and "expect that to be the case". I want it in writing, I want it correct, I want valid T&C's, not the ones I've been issued which are incorrect and HSBC have admitted as being so.

Lokolo

So you lose the paper statements and the 0.1% interest... thats what you will lose from the new changes.

Pay in an average over 3 or 6 (can't remember, its on this thread if you searched) months to get the current account advanced where you get a few features such as something to do with telephone banking (which I don't care about, I said text banking), text banking and regular account thingy which you've already mentioned. You gain these from current account advance. You lose them in normal current account.

Have you read the first post in this thread? It outlines about the accounts.

To be quite honest you seem to be complaining for the sake of complaining rather than for a decent reason.

It states it must be a regular income/salary, which is pretty much standard to any account, such as a student account, with all the banks it says 'You must pay in student loans/salary/regular payments.

SimonM_2

spenderdave wrote: »

The terms and conditions are indeed confusing. How is a month defined - calendar month, statement month or some other criteria. If I miss the deadline date by a day presumably it counts as the next month's input? And this is nearly always money transferred from another HSBC account, internet transfer but not BACS per se.

The person who called me today in response to my formal complaint with HSBC told me that it is being calculated on a calendar month (rather than a statement month), and also that they are looking at changing that to an average over the 12 months instead, because a lot(...!?) of customers were finding that the per-month wouldn't account for things like being paid salary on the last day of a month but it not going in to the bank until the working day after the weekend and failing to meet the criteria because of something like that (resulting in potentially 2 payments in 1 month and not in the previous for example), and generally it sounds like the "per calendar month" measuring may change at HSBC and is being looked in to currently. So even with the changes due in a matter of days it sounds like internally at HSBC they're still having to make adjustments to how they're measuring the key eligability criteria of the new account...

The £500 has been confirmed (in writing) as any payment, and doesn't need to be salary, and confirmed (by phone today) that it could just be a payment between accounts that I could set up - even 50 lots of £10 if I wanted to. Which makes it all rather pointless as a way of measuring if you're eligable as I could easily transfer £500 out and back in - you can even automate it to do so each month, which makes a mockery of the £500/month doesn't it?

SimonM_2

Lokolo wrote: »

So you lose the paper statements and the 0.1% interest... thats what you will lose from the new changes.

...and cheque gaurantee, and eligability for the Regular Saver account.

So if I'm no longer receiving monthly paper statements (although I was told today they could "change that on the system" so they were still received......), and no longer receiving credit interest, and no longer to have cheque gaurantee, and my local branch "isn't local" and my local branch isn't open on Saturdays, why on earth would I want to stay with HSBC? Why would I want to be a customer of HSBC?

Answer is, for the "Current Account", I wouldn't.

Lokolo wrote: »

Pay in an average over 3 or 6 (can't remember, its on this thread if you searched) months to get the current account advanced

Where have HSBC got that detailed in writing (either their website or a letter sent to customers)? It isn't something I've been told.

Lokolo wrote: »

Have you read the first post in this thread? It outlines about the accounts.

I've read the whole topic. I'm very aware of various aspects of the changes - seemingly more so than HSBC staff from what I've been able to tell so far from my calls with them.

Lokolo wrote: »

To be quite honest you seem to be complaining for the sake of complaining rather than for a decent reason.

It states it must be a regular income/salary, which is pretty much standard to any account, such as a student account, with all the banks it says 'You must pay in student loans/salary/regular payments.

I'm complaining because I'm within my rights to complain and I'm right in the points I'm complaining about (if there wern't problems and inconsistencies with the changes then I'd have no need to question them and raise the complaint). The T&C's are invalid due to them being incorrect. Where have you read that it states that you must have pay in a regular income/salary?

Lokolo

SimonM wrote: »

...and cheque gaurantee, and eligability for the Regular Saver account.

So if I'm no longer receiving monthly paper statements (although I was told today they could "change that on the system" so they were still received......), and no longer receiving credit interest, and no longer to have cheque gaurantee, and my local branch "isn't local" and my local branch isn't open on Saturdays, why on earth would I want to stay with HSBC? Why would I want to be a customer of HSBC?

Answer is, for the "Current Account", I wouldn't.

Indeed, as lot of people also say. If it isn't local I don't see why you are with them in the first place? And yes cheque gaurentee and regular saver. For starters high street banks don't usually have best rates at the best of times. And well cheque gaurentee, not many people still use them.

SimonM wrote: »

Where have HSBC got that detailed in writing (either their website or a letter sent to customers)? It isn't something I've been told.

Its either on this thread or the other HSBC thread. Wait for ShelfStacker to come along later. I don't know about writing, I have yet to recieve my full letter about changes as I currently have a student account, not a current account.

SimonM wrote: »

I've read the whole topic. I'm very aware of various aspects of the changes - seemingly more so than HSBC staff from what I've been able to tell so far from my calls with them.

Its a call centre, what do you expect? lol.

SimonM wrote: »

I'm complaining because I'm within my rights to complain and I'm right in the points I'm complaining about (if there wern't problems and inconsistencies with the changes then I'd have no need to question them and raise the complaint). The T&C's are invalid due to them being incorrect. Where have you read that it states that you must have pay in a regular income/salary?

Yes. I imagine you complain if you bought something for 57p yet the till put it thought as 58p yes? But then wouldn't say anything if it put it through as 56p....

And from this thread, as stated above, people have quoted, which is where I have got the info frooooooom (as you can most probably tell from the number of my posts, I am a little bit of a geek)

But geeky as I am, I also need sleep, check back tomorrow sometime, Shelfstacker may have posted by then, he hasn't really been on today.

ahai1

It is not worth wasting time and money over such a small thing as which account they are going to put you on. After all the phone calls and letters cost money.

grastgirl

SimonM, I had a problem with the Current Account/Current Account Advance thing, I suspect because I'd only started paying in a salary in the last few months and the head offices systems hadn't picked it up, a phone call to customer service didn't clear it up (probably because they hadn't been properly informed of the changes), although I did get helpful people once I got put through to the new accounts dept instead of the normal phone banking people. Going into the branch though was much better, they looked at the funding on my account, sent a memo to HO and seems like it's sorted. I know it's not necessarily easy for you to go to a branch, but perhaps it will save you time, money and considerable stress in the long term.

The confusion in the T&C's and not being able to work out for yourself if you're eligible or not is very annoying, I agree, but I'm not sure sending lots of letters and making multiple complaining phone calls is going to help you to get the solution you want.