HSBC Joke?

southstand1882

A friend of mine has been redundant for a couple of months, and has built up bank charges of approximately 2.5K over the last few years. (She also has approx £25K of debt)

I urged her to contact HSBC after I read about 'financial hardship' on this site.

After numerous stalling phone calls from HSBC telling her they couldn't deal with the case until they knew what tax benefits she'd be getting, they have finally contacted her this morning with an update.

According to HSBC, her outgoings will exceed her 'income' by approximately £600 per month. Therefore they are releasing £600 of her charges into her account. Are they serious?!

So instead of her having -£600 to spend, she now has £0 in her account!!!

Anybody got any advice on how to deal with them? She could really do with that £2K until she finds a job.

natweststaffmember

southstand1882 wrote: »

A friend of mine has been redundant for a couple of months, and has built up bank charges of approximately 2.5K over the last few years. (She also has approx £25K of debt)

I urged her to contact HSBC after I read about 'financial hardship' on this site.

After numerous stalling phone calls from HSBC telling her they couldn't deal with the case until they knew what tax benefits she'd be getting, they have finally contacted her this morning with an update.

According to HSBC, her outgoings will exceed her 'income' by approximately £600 per month. Therefore they are releasing £600 of her charges into her account. Are they serious?!

So instead of her having -£600 to spend, she now has £0 in her account!!!

Anybody got any advice on how to deal with them? She could really do with that £2K until she finds a job.

Does your friend have any other arrears such as rent/mortgage/utilities/council tax?

southstand1882

Just rent of £450...that includes utils and council tax

natweststaffmember

southstand1882 wrote: »

Just rent of £450...that includes utils and council tax

If the arrears are £450 then your friend may want to write back and tell them that he needs to pay debt a £x and debt b £y which are in arrears. Those are his priority debts and can HSBC reconsider the amount they are refunding to include those amounts. They should include in the letter any evidence of this if not already provided.