Credit Card Cancelled - Help!!

tayworth83

Hi

My husband has a CC with HSBC, before Xmas we were struggling for money due to him being self employed and not having much work, so he rang HSBC to enquire about reducing his monthly payment for a few months. At no point did he say he wouldn't be able to make his payments.

HSBC only gave him one option and that was to take out a payment plan however this would effect his credit rating. He declined this option and since then has made his regular payments.

He hasn't used the card for nearly 3 months and went to use the other week and it was declined. He rang the bank and it turns out that HSBC cancelled the card and set up the payment plan that he had declined.

Where do we stand with this? I understand that HSBC will have a right to cancel the card at any time but we have not received any documentation to say that the card has been cancelled and we haven't had anything about the payment plan. Since the phone call to HSBC we have made all of the monthly payments as per his statement and these payments were not reduced.

He has complained to HSBC and received back a letter that hasn't answered any of his questions. It basically says they aren't going to do anything. Will this have affected our credit rating? Is it worth us taking this to the Financial Ombudsman?

Thanks

Karen x

Consumerist

I think you should take this up with the FOS. If you haven't yet made a formal (written) complaint [Edit: to the bank], that should be the first thing to do. Head the letter with the word COMPLAINT (in bold) so that they are aware that you are making a formal complaint and not just a general enquiry. Your letter should also include those questions which have not been addressed. Send the letter by Recorded Delivery post so you can confirm their receipt using Royal Mail's online tracking service.

The FOS can ask to hear any telephone conversations relevant to the complaint to establish what was discussed.

You may find it helpful, while you await the bank's response, to get your credit report from the three major CRAs to see if an Arrangement to Pay (AP) has been recorded on any of them. If there is no AP indicated on the credit reports then the bank has merely cancelled the card which, as you say, they are entitled to do and there would then be little point in a reference to the FOS.

It wouldn't surprise me if the twonk you spoke to didn't understand what has happened and has fed you a line which the bank will now attempt to defend.

Kyresa

HSBC are very good at not answering questions you ask them in correspondence.. I know this from experience!

tayworth83

Hi

We have sent a complaint to HSBC but they came back with a letter that dodn't even answer any of the questions. Am going to do a credit check and see if an arrangement to pay has been put on my husband. If one has I will take it further as we have had no information from the bank on this.

Karen xx

ponymad_3

Following on from the above, please let us know if in the reply to you HSBC finished their letter stating that they were closing off the complaint and in effect issuing a deadlock reply. Your case can only , and will only be looked at by the FOS if HSBC have decided that this is their final reply.

Can you also confirm if you have been declined credit from another provider, as this would be a possible avenue providing your credit rating is not too bad.

A leaflet detailing which CRAs HSBC use should be readily available in branch, so you can go into any HSBC to obtain.

Hope this helps.

tayworth83

Hi

No HSBC haven't said this is their final decision. The letter just reads, " I trust that matters have now been resolved to your satisfaction. If this is not the case, you canescalate your concerns by writing to the Senior Manager of our Service Quality Team at the following address."

Are you saying I need to contact HSBC again and try and get a final decision from them before I can approach the Financial ombudsman??

As for our credit rating, we haven't applied for any credit recently as we don't need or want any. However we haven't missed any payments on any of our other credit agreements, i.e. mortgage and other credit cards so as far as I am aware our credit rating is ok!!

Karen xx

CLAPTON

It would seem reasonable that if you were struggling with debt then you wouldn't want to take out any more debt.
Presumably, HSBC are allowing you to pay off the credit card in a 'normal' manner so why is it a problem not to get more debt with them.
It would seem to come under the general heading of 'responsible leanding'.

tayworth83

We are not bothered that the card has been cancelled, as I said the card hasn't been used for several months and we do not want them to reinstate it. The problem we have is that they have cancelled the card as a payment plan was supposedly set up. However we have had no correspondence of this so called plan or that they had cancelled the card!!

CLAPTON

what do you want to achieve?
a payment plan that will trash your credit record
or simply to continue paying the minimum payment due

Consumerist

tayworth83 wrote: »

Are you saying I need to contact HSBC again and try and get a final decision from them before I can approach the Financial ombudsman??

Yes, HSBC are saying that if you are not satisfied with their response at this stage then there is an additional stage of their complaints procedure to go through. This is not uncommon; it allows the complaint to be investigated at a higher level or they are hoping you will give up - take your pick.

The issue, as I understand it, is that you have been told you have an Arrangement to Pay when you had declined the offer of such an arrangement. If that's the case then if an AP appears on your credit record you will be able to refer the complaint to the FOS after you have completed the banks complaints procedure. The bank's final response should advise you of your right to refer the matter to the FOS.

tayworth83

That is what we are trying to find out. We declined the payment plan as we didn't want to have our credit score affected however when we phoned up HSBC to find out why the card had been cancelled we were told that a payment plan had been set up and as I have stated above we have received no documentation on this. Since we made the phonecall to HSBC back in December last year to enquire about reducing the monthly payments for a few months, and the option of a payment plan was all they could offer, which as I have said we declined, we have made our monthly payment ontime and have paid over and above the minimum payment.