Is it the bank's fault that I'm in debt to debt collector?

pebrewer

Hello,
I'm new to this site, just signed up today after the harrowing day I've had.
I'm a student, with a current account at Nationwide which my mum transfers living expenses into, that she has saved up for my education, as well as money I saved up from working before I began my undergraduate.
I also had an HSBC student account, which over the course of those three years, I used the overdraft of. I decided to do a Masters degree, and went into my local branch of HSBC to notify them. They said it was fine, my account would automatically become a graduates account, my overdraft was still allowed, although they may start charging interest. I was fine with this, i knew that when I finished my masters I would arrange a repayment schedule with them.
It was to organise this that I called them this morning, to find that my account had been cancelled in june, and my overdraft given to Metropolitan debt collectors. I called Met. immeditately, but I was quite hysterical, so the girl just tried to calm me down and said i could repay £20 a month, seeing as i wasn't earning, but she didn't explain interest or how long it would take to repay.
Apparently, the reason they did this was because final demands had been posted to a previous uni address. The problem is that, on several occasions, I had tried to get HSBC to use that address as my main one, but they refused, saying the alpha-numerical flat number and house number wasn't recognised by their system. At the end of each phonecall it was agreed that the correspondence address would remain as my original, hometown address. However, the advisor I spoke to today said that an employee had changed it manually in April last year, overriding their system - I had already moved out by April. All the letters were sent there, and I never received a phonecall to notify me that the address had been changed on th system, or that my account was in difficulties, even though I had been called by them regularly before asking me to make a nominal payment to keep my account active.
I'm so sorry for this rant, but I'm terrifed and I don't understand how I could be in this mess, when I had been so in touch with HSBC about things.
I've written a letter explaining all this to the branch manager of my local branch, and also the service quality manager in Leeds. But I'm terrified.
Thanks for any help or advice.

pebrewer

i know my case may not seem very important, as there are people struggling with much worse debts, but I'm absolutely terrified and have no idea what to do next. please help if you can.
Thanks

poppy10_2

You might get more replies if your post was a little more readable - breaking it into paragraphs helps. Try this:

Hello, I'm new to this site, just signed up today after the harrowing day I've had.

I'm a student, with a current account at Nationwide which my mum transfers living expenses into, as well as money I saved up from working before I began my undergraduate course. I also had an HSBC student account, which over the course of those three years, I used the overdraft of.

I decided to do a Masters degree, and went into my local branch of HSBC to notify them. They said it was fine, my account would automatically become a graduates account, my overdraft was still allowed, although they may start charging interest. I was fine with this, i knew that when I finished my masters I would arrange a repayment schedule with them.

It was to organise this that I called them this morning, to find that my account had been cancelled in june, and my overdraft given to Metropolitan debt collectors. I called Met. immeditately, but I was quite hysterical, so the girl just tried to calm me down and said i could repay £20 a month, seeing as i wasn't earning, but she didn't explain interest or how long it would take to repay.

Apparently, the reason they did this was because final demands had been posted to a previous uni address. The problem is that, on several occasions, I had tried to get HSBC to use that address as my main one, but they refused, saying the alpha-numerical flat number and house number wasn't recognised by their system. At the end of each phonecall it was agreed that the correspondence address would remain as my original, hometown address.

However, the advisor I spoke to today said that an employee had changed it manually in April last year, overriding their system - I had already moved out by April. All the letters were sent there, and I never received a phonecall to notify me that the address had been changed on th system, or that my account was in difficulties, even though I had been called by them regularly before asking me to make a nominal payment to keep my account active.

I'm so sorry for this rant, but I'm terrifed and I don't understand how I could be in this mess, when I had been so in touch with HSBC about things.

I've written a letter explaining all this to the branch manager of my local branch, and also the service quality manager in Leeds. But I'm terrified.
Thanks for any help or advice.

BeautyandtheBeast_3

Hi - hope you get it sorted - do you have internet banking with HSBC because you can send a secure message and hopefully get somewhere?

MyLastFiver

Complain politely to HSBC via recorded-delivery letter. Stay calm and stick to the facts. Escalate your complaint in line with HSBC's complaints policy if necessary.

Don't know the precise nature of your contact with Met, but if it were me I wouldn't pay them anything yet, pending the outcome of the complaint. You could write to them explaining this. In the letter, tell them to communicaste with you by post only, in order to stop any calls you're getting.