HSBC ripped me off

Hi
Hope someone can give me a bit of advice, I have moved to New Zealand and unfortunately took my eye off the ball and was caught out by plummetting exchange rates.
HSBC direct debited my account to pay off my credit card which put me into unauthorised overdraft (£2600.00) I wrote to tell them that I was awaiting a tax refund and would use this to repay rather than lose even more money on exchange rates, we were touring at the time and so only had intermittent access to accounts. They did not reply but sent me a series of ever more threatening letters, I wrote twice more but have never received a reply even though they are using my new address so must have got at least one. the result is that they racked up £700.00 in charges and interest so that when the rebate came through eventually it was not enough to clear the overdraft.

what hurts most is that prior to moving we sold our house and they had £210,000.00 of our money for 6 weeks and paid no interest and the following 6 months over £10,000.00 and again paid zilch so how can they justify £700.00 charges for £2,600.00 over 4 months.

Sorry for the ramble, I guess what I really want to know is do I have a case and given that phoning is difficult can I pursue it from here?

Thanks

Comments

  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 116,296 Forumite
    Name Dropper First Anniversary First Post Combo Breaker
    what hurts most is that prior to moving we sold our house and they had £210,000.00 of our money for 6 weeks and paid no interest

    That would only occur if you held it in a non interest paying account.
    so how can they justify £700.00 charges for £2,600.00 over 4 months.

    Thats the way it is currently. Most will agree the charges are heavy but there is little that can be done about it other than try to avoid them in the first place.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • dragon56
    dragon56 Posts: 14 Forumite
    dunstonh wrote: »
    That would only occur if you held it in a non interest paying account.


    Thats the way it is currently. Most will agree the charges are heavy but there is little that can be done about it other than try to avoid them in the first place.

    It did attract interest but only .05% which was the best anyone would pay at that time, that was more than eaten up in charges to transfer to NZ so effectively no interest.

    They also charged £32.00 for renewal of credit card a week after they wrote to tell me it was cancelled and to return it. If they had not used the current ac to repay the credit card I could have just paid the minimum on that and would not have had a problem.
  • Premier_2
    Premier_2 Posts: 15,141 Forumite
    Combo Breaker First Post
    dragon56 wrote: »
    It did attract interest but only .05% which was the best anyone would pay at that time, that was more than eaten up in charges to transfer to NZ so effectively no interest.

    ...

    Oh that's terrible.

    I didn't get paid my wages this month by my employer :(

    Well I did get the usual money in my bank account from them, but by the time I paid all my bills for the mortgage, council tax, leccy, credit cards etc, It was all gone, so effectively they didn't pay me :cool:
    "Now to trolling as a concept. .... Personally, I've always found it a little sad that people choose to spend such a large proportion of their lives in this way but they do, and we have to deal with it." - MSE Forum Manager 6th July 2010
  • dragon56
    dragon56 Posts: 14 Forumite
    Oh that's terrible.

    I didn't get paid my wages this month by my employer :(

    Well I did get the usual money in my bank account from them, but by the time I paid all my bills for the mortgage, council tax, leccy, credit cards etc, It was all gone, so effectively they didn't pay me
    Sensible criticism is always helpful, childish sarcasm is best kept for the playground. Your analogy would only be relevant if your deductions were made by a "Company Store" or you were "Sharecropping".
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