HSBC (merged)

Eaglelad

Hi All,

First time poster but I have been reading all the advice on this HSBC thread for this last month or so and it has proved very useful so I thought I would share my (so far) successful experience of the reclaiming process;

24th Jan - sent off first letter with the full 6 year breakdown of charges applied to my accounts (one personal account, one joint account). I included the statutory interest. I was reclaiming £335.50 (plus interest)

Within 14 days I received the standard "we are looking into it" letter from Colin

12th Feb - sent off my 2nd letter with the 7 day deadline.

19th Feb - On the 7th day received an identical reply from Colin to the first but this time relating to the joint account claim only.

After waiting a few more days (till the 27th) I was about to proceed with the MCOL as receiving the same letter twice had wound me up a bit! But on the advice of a poster on here I called the Leeds office and a very helpful lady checked my file and confirmed that two offer letters (one for each account) had been processed on the 22nd Feb. When I said that I had yet to recieve them she apologised and put my name on a list of people that had apparently called that day and she had found had been in the same situation. She said she would ensure that the offer letters were resent.

3rd March - received both offer letters offering me 100% of my original claim - £335.50 which obviously I am accepting.

All in all I'm pretty chuffed at having taken on the bank and won (assuming they pay up in the promised 10 days)! Appreciate that my claim was not for as much as many on here but it still feels good! Anyway I hope that my story shows that it is worth going through the process and it is working slowly but also is worth giving them a call before proceeding with the court action. From my conversation with the lady at HSBC it does seem they are trying to process all claims as quickly as they can and I did feel for her having to put up with irate people like me every day!

Good luck all and thanks for the advice.

golddigger_3

Sent my letter off to HSBC today asking for £2261 + interest (£470.56) so a total of £2731.56, which happens to be the same amount almost to the penny that we are in arrears with our mortgage. Would be nice to get that sorted. Crossing ecerything...

Congratulations to everyone who have successfully claimed so far abd good luck to those still in the process- don't let those banks scare you into submission - remember they are the unlawful ones even if we ahve been a bit careless.

clarefromwales

golddigger wrote:

Sent my letter off to HSBC today asking for £2261 + interest (£470.56) so a total of £2731.56, which happens to be the same amount almost to the penny that we are in arrears with our mortgage. Would be nice to get that sorted. Crossing ecerything...

Congratulations to everyone who have successfully claimed so far abd good luck to those still in the process- don't let those banks scare you into submission - remember they are the unlawful ones even if we ahve been a bit careless.

did you send your second letter to your local branch or HSBC head office?
thanks and good luck with yours:T

Andypez

coz wrote:

Hello!

I am still waiting for a reply from HSBC regarding charges to my bank account but received a letter from their credit card dept within a few days saying that they will not refund me the charges to my card. There were only £40 in charges so shall I just leave it? My other HSBC amount is over £800 so I'll keep pushing that one but should I continue the credit card one out of principal? Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

don't leave it, it is your money, not theirs, despite the amount!!

AdamB

I got a letter today dated 27th Feb offering me £2045. The only thing is I have already send back the acceptance form from a previous letter they sent me (also dated 27th Feb) for £1990. Could I be cheeky and accept this as well? What is likely to happen?

golddigger_3

clarefromwales wrote:

did you send your second letter to your local branch or HSBC head office?
thanks and good luck with yours:T

Hi Clare

I sent my letter to my branch by Registered Post

Thinkpink_2

Thank you to everyone for their advise on this site, i have spent hours trauling through and am now applying to my bank for reimbursement of charges applied to my account for the last six years.

Bank: HSBC
Claim: £2765.91 (inc interest)

01/03/07 - Sent 1st letter, recorded delivery to my local branch.
06/03/07 - Spoke to the Charges Team Direct today (08456 028 006) and they have not got it logged on thier system as yet!...my 2nd letter is drawn up ready to go out on the 14/03/07 whether they have my 1st letter logged or not

artois82

i am with hsbc and just starting a claim,altho i havnt really been that good at manageing my account for the last 6 years i have still had the charges that add up to roughly 3500 grand,anyone in a similair situation with hsbc? thanks

Si_Haworth

Well today I sent off my letter asking for all my statements, I think they only date back to 5 years worth of banking but I'm young, naive and at times crap with my money so no doubt I've racked up some hefty charges on my account and credit card.

I have two concerns though;

1) The first being that the OFT seem to have cottoned on to this and are asking the banks to lower there charges, but does this essentially mean I'll only get (roughly) half the difference back? Whereas my brother got roughly all his charges back in full...! Can I still fight this, and ask for nearly every penny, or will I be better taking what I'm offered and be grateful, learn my lesson and more importantly learn to budget

2) I also got told today to start preparing to move banks as more likely than not HSBC won't be too happy and will close my account. What implications will this have on any credit rating etc? Will I struggle to open a new account with the history of claiming back charges, or is that of no significance?


Thanks for the help in advance, and I'll be sure to keep you up to date with how things get on.

AdamB

Si_Haworth wrote:

1) The first being that the OFT seem to have cottoned on to this and are asking the banks to lower there charges, but does this essentially mean I'll only get (roughly) half the difference back? Whereas my brother got roughly all his charges back in full...! Can I still fight this, and ask for nearly every penny, or will I be better taking what I'm offered and be grateful, learn my lesson and more importantly learn to budget

It will become easier to get money back, however it will become harder to get all your money back. Anything the OFT comes back with is not governed by law but it is expected that banks will use this as evidence if they ever actualy go to court. The OFT wont look into anything under the amount they set but it doesnt mean it becomes law that they can charge these amounts (unless the OFT sets it at the rate it actualy costs the banks)

2) I also got told today to start preparing to move banks as more likely than not HSBC won't be too happy and will close my account. What implications will this have on any credit rating etc? Will I struggle to open a new account with the history of claiming back charges, or is that of no significance?

It is advisable to open an account with another bank just in case. However the Financial Ombudsman has already demanded one bank to pay compensation to one of their customers for closing their account due to reclaiming charges. The banks cannot put on your credit reprt that you have reclaimed bank charges. But they are highly likely to put into their own notes about you that you are a "difficult customer" which will make it harder to obtain anything in future from that financial organisation eg, if you reclaim from HSBC you will find it diffcult to obtain anything from First Direct.

Hope this is of help.