Credit Rating/HSBC Problems

Escapelessly1

Hello,

This is my first post to this forum and I am not too familiar with banking of any kind so any help recieved would be fantastic please.

On Thursday my HSBC debit card was eaten by a cash machine for 'security reasons,' now obviously I was pretty worred by this to start with so I rang them up to find our exactly what the security reasons were.
Upon ringing their advice line and asking I was informed that my bank account was marked to be closed that evening so again I was very concerned as to why this was the case as I had received no prior warning that this was going to happen, no letters, no phone calls, nothing. So I enquired about this and they said it was due to several reversed charges (my phone bill coming out of my account then coming back in due to insufficient funds.) However I knew I'd had £50 in my bank account to pay off this phone bill, the advisor then explained I had received a £50 bank charge for going £2 overdrawn the previous month thus leaving me with nothing in my bank to pay off the phone bill.

Again I had received no notice of this, surely they should have warned me of these charges, especially as they had rang me a few weeks previous to this to check my address, which was indeed correct.

So i went into my local HSBC branch on Saturday to enquire about what could be done about this because in my opinion HSBC were at fault for not informing me, because this could have been solved if they had warned me because I could have borrowed some money from my mum to put in the bank to pay off my phone bill. They said they could do nothing, the account was closed and it couldn't be re-opened and I couldn't open a new account, they really weren't very helpful apart from telling me to try and open a new account with another bank.

Then i went next door to Halifax, explained the situation to them and they were appauled at HSBC's behaviour, so they tried to set me up a new account with them and lo and behold I was declined because of a poor credit rating, caused by the bank charges and closure of my account from HSBC.

So due to a complete lack of communication from HSBC and yes I'll admit a bit of lacksadasical banking from myself I am unable to hold a bank account, I will be receiving my wages from work this Friday, however I have no bank account for them to be transferred into and being 18 I really don't want my credit rating to be ruined for the rest of my life.

I really need some help please and I really would appreciate any advice.

Thank you in advance

hello2007

Try Lloyds Tsb cash account which can opened online and is suitable for people with adverse credit or the CO-OP Cashminder account. There is no need for you tell the new bank about what happen with HSBC because when they do the credit check they will see that you have adverse credit.

HSBC are not at fault because is up to you to check your account regularly and to make sure that you do not go overdrawn. I had a HSBC account for years and when you log into internet banking there is message on your account giving your advance notice of charges that are going to be debited from your account.

Tixy

Your credit file will not be wrecked for the rest of your life. But it does sound like HSBC have recorded some adverse data.
Have you been going over your limit regularly (or having items bounced regularly) - they generally won't close an account unless its happened a few times. I'd suggest its worth getting copies of your credit files to see what they have said. Once you know whats on their we can advise how long its will be likely to affect you for.

The charges will have been notified to you either by online banking or on a seperate sheet sent with your paper statement.

I'd suggest applying for a basic bank account elsewhere - a basic bank account doesn't have a full credit check just an identity check. Co-op cashminder and the barclays basic account are 2 of the more popular such accounts on these forums, and 2 of the easiest to get.