Debt is not mine! - HSBC

choclover

Hi there,

About two weeks ago my oh and I received a letter each from a DCA stating that we both owed HSBC over £20K on a current a/c and it had passed to them.:eek: The a/c was a joint a/c but the debt in question was not on this a/c but on a loan my OT took out - I had no dealings with it.

The story of it is...

The OT's repayments were supposed to be taken out of the joint a/c by direct debit, but this never happened and after about 6 months (still adding interest and charges) HSBC decided without warning that they would take a payment from the current a/c. At the time we had both stopped using the a/c and had switched to individual current a/c's so there was no available money in the account for the payment to go through. This caused our current a/c to go overdrawn due to charges for the unpaid direct debit (no overdraft facility allowed on the a/c due to the loan). We tried closing the current a/c and offered to pay the balance off, but HSBC refused saying the a/c was linked to my OH's loan.

So that's how I think the confusion has come about. Now I don't know what I should do. I've spoken to the DCA three times stating the Debt is not mine and asking them what they are going to do about it. The first time the lady told me she would have to get in contact with HSBC to check the information they have been given is correct. She stated HSBC may have consolidated both of our debts into one and said if they have done this it was incorrect and the letters sent to us would have to be withdrawen and sent out again with the correct information. I have since chased them up twice and have been told HSBC have not got back to them.:mad:

I am unsure what to do now, obviously I can't wait for HSBC to get back to the DCA for them to get back to me as from experience HSBC are rubbish at returning phone calls (something to do with an automated dialling system, one of their operatives once told me), but:

1. should I complain to the DCA or to HSBC or both?
2. what sort of deadline should I give them to sort it out?
3. Is there any legal jargon i can use to emphasize my point?
4. And what should I do if I don't get a satisfactory response?

Please can anyone help?

sparkle84

choclover wrote:

Hi there,

About two weeks ago my oh and I received a letter each from a DCA stating that we both owed HSBC over £20K on a current a/c and it had passed to them.:eek: The a/c was a joint a/c but the debt in question was not on this a/c but on a loan my OT took out - I had no dealings with it.

The story of it is...

The OT's repayments were supposed to be taken out of the joint a/c by direct debit, but this never happened and after about 6 months (still adding interest and charges) HSBC decided without warning that they would take a payment from the current a/c. At the time we had both stopped using the a/c and had switched to individual current a/c's so there was no available money in the account for the payment to go through. This caused our current a/c to go overdrawn due to charges for the unpaid direct debit (no overdraft facility allowed on the a/c due to the loan). We tried closing the current a/c and offered to pay the balance off, but HSBC refused saying the a/c was linked to my OH's loan.

So that's how I think the confusion has come about. Now I don't know what I should do. I've spoken to the DCA three times stating the Debt is not mine and asking them what they are going to do about it. The first time the lady told me she would have to get in contact with HSBC to check the information they have been given is correct. She stated HSBC may have consolidated both of our debts into one and said if they have done this it was incorrect and the letters sent to us would have to be withdrawen and sent out again with the correct information. I have since chased them up twice and have been told HSBC have not got back to them.:mad:

I am unsure what to do now, obviously I can't wait for HSBC to get back to the DCA for them to get back to me as from experience HSBC are rubbish at returning phone calls (something to do with an automated dialling system, one of their operatives once told me), but:

1. should I complain to the DCA or to HSBC or both?
2. what sort of deadline should I give them to sort it out?
3. Is there any legal jargon i can use to emphasize my point?
4. And what should I do if I don't get a satisfactory response?

Please can anyone help?

Sorry I know this is going to sound stupid but who is OT I can;t begin to help without knowing whose debt it is

CheeseOnToast

Al_Mac wrote:

Not what you want to hear, but you've said the joint account was the debt. Half yours regardless of who spent the money. Sorry.

You might be right. But we need to establish something. Did they continue to take the payments from the joint current account and that's where the 20k debt resides, or is the 20k for the unpaid loan?

If it is the outstanding loan balance then you should not be involved, if the debt was all placed into the joint current a/c then I think you would be responsible as the account is yours too.. ?

choclover

Hi Guys,

Sorry for the confusion, my other half took the loan which has an outstanding debt of £20k however the repayments were to be taken from our current account - there is nothing owing on the current account - my stance on this is my other half signed the agreement - I didn't - and the loan was in his name, so I don't see how I can be accountable for the outstanding balance.

However, I'm not sure who I need to complain to regarding the DCA letter stating they want me to pay up because as far as I'm concerned its not my debt.

Thanks

Alfie_E

choclover wrote:

… my other half signed the agreement - I didn't - and the loan was in his name, so I don't see how I can be accountable for the outstanding balance.

You can’t be. See the first case study in the Financial Ombudsman Service’s article banking: firms' right of 'set off'. The DCA seem to appreciate that what HSBC have done is wrong, so hopefully they won’t cause too much of a problem.

I think you should go back the HSBC and state that you want to make a formal complaint. Get a postal address, and write to them. That makes it harder for them to just ignore you. The FSA’s I have a complaint: what can I do? gives you a diagram detailing the steps in the complaint process. As to deadlines, the Financial Ombudsman Service say you must give HSBC at least eight weeks to sort out your problem. Of course, if they come back with their final position before then, and you don’t like it, you can move your complaint on.

choclover

Thanks Alfie E,

I'll make sure I ring them tomorrow to get an address to complain to. I'll post again once I've received a response or the eight weeks is up.

Thanks again