HSBC hidden available balance

Elliel16

I have an HSBC account which I check everyday via internet banking.
On more than one occasion I have checked my balance during working hours to ensure I am in credit, only to find the following day I am overdrawn due to transactions leaving my account outside working hours, therefore leaving me overdrawn. I immediatley tranfer sufficient funds from another account to restore the account to being in credit.
I have called the bank to explain my disatisfaction of transactions occuring between 5pm and midnight however HSBC explained that if I checked my 'available balance' which can only be revealed by going into the account and expanding this section it would show the correct balance after the pending charges are to come out.
Why isn't this displayed as my balance and why cant I see the pending charges - it seems to me HSBC are withholding this info/making it difficult for its customers to check their true balance purely to reap the financial rewards via unfair charges.
This month I was informed that I would be charged £95 for going overdrawn on 4 seperate occasions. Unfortunatley they ignore the fact I called on more than one of these occasions to explain the above and that I requested my call was recorded, the advise given is to check my 'available balance'. Also the records only show dates (which is way I have been charged as the overdrawn balance covers 2days as charges are logged if your overdrawn over midnight) and not times, as these would show that I was overdrawn for less than 24 hours.
HSBC charge a maximum of £25 per day of being overdrawn, however they will not charge more than the total overdraft (eg £13 overdrawn = £13 charge)
On one occasion I was £95 overdrawn (for less than 24 hours) hence the £95 charge, however this was only 1 of the 4 occurances which suggests it should have been a maximum of £25?
I have complained on the phone and had the charge reduced to £75 but they said if it occurs again they wont reduce the charge.

I am planning on writing a formal complaint regarding the out of hours transactions, the difficult way of obtaining your 'available balance' and the fact pending charges are not displayed to customers only HSBC employees.

Does anyone have any advice as I suspect HSBC may silence me with a 'this is our policy' response leaving me having to pay for their money making scheme rather than removing the charge and changing there methods.

vaporate

£75 is alot.

What limit is your agreed overdraft? if you have one.

Elliel16

I dont have an overdraft - worked hard to get rid of it, I have 2 bank account with HSBC which I tend to shuffle money around (bills account + spend account) last month work changed my pay date so I went 6 weeks on 1 months wages eeek! just made it through by moving some money from bills to spend as I had a bit extra available, unforunatley didn;t get it across in time due to the above.

Lokolo

They do not charge a maximum of £25 per day.

The charges are based on transactions.

So if you go from £0 to -£26, to £55 to -£95 in the same day you would be charged £75.

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Upcoming charges are displayed on internet banking. On the left handside there is a "Charges and Interest" section.

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I'm not bothered about clicking a button to see my available button but I can see why it would annoy some.

Elliel16

I meant max of £25 per transaction - I'm not sure I understand you Lokolo?
HSBC says the max charge will be £25 , but not more than your O/D amount.
My charges for 4 seperate occasions which HSBC informed me should have totalled £100 (4x£25) but was only £95 as that was the maximum I went O/D during the month, my argument is if that was only 1 occasion shouldn't it still be £25 for that one occasion? As the other occasions O/D were £12, £20 and £40.
Therefore if each O/D was counted seperatly the charges should have been: £12, £20, £25 + £25 = £82. Not £95.
I had suffienct funds to cover each of the O/D occasions in my other bank account and it infurates me I still get charged. They also recommended having mobile banking...Guess how much that costs...

Regarding finding your 'available balance' is frustrating as where ever you are shown your 'balance' this is incorrect. Why bother giving you incorrect info? When you see all your accounts you are show the 'balance' not the available, when you display the fast view on the left its the same, having to go into each account and expand this section I feel is hidden - I'm not computer illiterate, the opposite in many ways and I had to be told about it by and HSBC advisor.

Lokolo

Elliel16 wrote: »

I meant max of £25 per transaction - I'm not sure I understand you Lokolo?
HSBC says the max charge will be £25 , but not more than your O/D amount.
My charges for 4 seperate occasions which HSBC informed me should have totalled £100 (4x£25) but was only £95 as that was the maximum I went O/D during the month, my argument is if that was only 1 occasion shouldn't it still be £25 for that one occasion? As the other occasions O/D were £12, £20 and £40.
Therefore if each O/D was counted seperatly the charges should have been: £12, £20, £25 + £25 = £82. Not £95.
I had suffienct funds to cover each of the O/D occasions in my other bank account and it infurates me I still get charged. They also recommended having mobile banking...Guess how much that costs...

Ah right yep thats how much you should have been charged.

My point is your complaint won't get you anywhere;

1) Out of Hours Transactions
Not sure why you're complaining exactly. Transactions can happen anytime in a 24 hour period.

2) Available Balance
You might have a point here

3) Charges
These are available on internet banking.

You might want to base your complaint around the fact they say they will not charge more than the transaction, even though they originally had.

Elliel16

Thanks for that Lokolo - very succinct!

My apologies for my terminology - I'm new to this!

I'm all for out of hours, the reason I have a problem with HSBC's method is I checked the balance of my account and it had a credit balance (my mistake for not checkin my 'available balance') as the following day I saw a transaction had come out after I'd looked at my balance leaving me O/D, as this went over midnight I received a charge - I called but to no avail...

I'm glad you appreciate my frustration re: available balance

Finally I have confused you with incorrect terminology regarding pending - I meant transactions not charges (apologies) I know the bank staff can view pending transactions eg how much my grocery shop is and that its due to come out... sometime... so why cant I? If I did I would be able to get the money in before the transaction came out (at whatever time)

I feel that if you have credit you dont get any benefits but the minute you dip into negative they try and get you for every penny! After all my bills I was left with £135 for the month (food/petrol) now -£75 I will have £60... I'm scared this will happen next month so I stay up late checking my accounts and dread being caught out.

glider3560

Perhaps keep your own record of how much you spend on your card. Then you always know how much you can actually spend. Back in the "good ol'days" people used to use the transaction record pages in their cheque books to do this.

gt94sss2

Elliel16 wrote: »

Does anyone have any advice as I suspect HSBC may silence me with a 'this is our policy' response leaving me having to pay for their money making scheme rather than removing the charge and changing there methods.

1. There have been some posts before on the fact that the 'available balance' is not the default display - however, all banks operate like this and it would be much more confusing if this was the case.

2. It is your responsibility to keep track of how much you spend on your debit card etc. and take account of that before you spend more.

3. As others have mentioned, HSBC do display charges they intend to charge on internet banking. They also show 'pending transactions' - i.e. transactions that they expect to debit or credit your account the next working day.

4. I don't used debit cards much, but transactions always seem to appear on my HSBC statement/online banking early in the morning (between 1am-4am) rather than in the evening (even if the available balance changes immediately - and that it can be several days before the debit card transaction is fully processed or drops off the system)

5. HSBC also do not charge any fees if your account goes overdrawn and you put it back in credit on the same day. It sounds as if you manage your account to close to zero so it sounds to me as if you would be better off with a small overdraft (i.e. £50) in place on your account, just in case you miscalculate how much money you have available. (or keep a higher running balance in your account/run one account not two)

Regards
Sunil

gt94sss2

Lokolo wrote: »

They do not charge a maximum of £25 per day.

The charges are based on transactions.

So if you go from £0 to -£26, to £55 to -£95 in the same day you would be charged £75.

The HSBC Fair Fees policy states:

We always aim to be fair in the way we charge for our Overdraft services, therefore:
• we will not charge an Arrangement Fee provided that, within the last 6 months, we have not agreed to a request from you for an overdraft
• we will not charge an Arrangement Fee for an overdraft request of £10 or less
• we will not charge Arrangement Fees for informal overdrafts if covering funds are paid in before the end of the day
• we will give advance notice before Arrangement Fees are debited from your account
• if debited Arrangement Fees (or interest) cause your account to go overdrawn or further overdrawn we will not make a further charge
• Arrangement Fees charged will never be higher than the overdraft requested (eg, a £15 overdraft will not cost you say, £50)
• we will not charge more than one Arrangement Fee a day

The last point above suggests to me that they only charge one set of £25/day - and from memory are also capped at £150/month.

Regards
Sunil

oliverp_2

You aren't charged for being overdrawn in an available balance only on the balance.

So providing you haven't spent more money than you actually have, there won't be a problem.

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see why people find this concept so difficult?