HSBC collections

zdotgirl

Hi I'm new here, I wondered if any one could give me any advice, basically to cut a long story short HSBC has sent my account to a collections agency.

I had a graduate overdraft which they closed due to me not making payments into the account which at the time I didn't know you had to do but that's another story, we agreed to set up a repayment plan where I would pay a certain amount for 3 months at the end of December January and February and that then I would then be set up with a temporary overdraft facility where I would have to keep making regular payments into it in order to refine my overdraft. I asked them for a letter in writing about this and was told that this was not possible.

I made my first payment on the 14th of December I phoned in branch customer services to make sure that this was the case and they told me yes. After I made the first payment I received a letter stating that I hadn't made attempts to repay my debt, which I found surprising due to the fact that I had just made a payment. I went back into branch and spoke to someone again on the phone and they told me that this was just a formality and not to worry just keep making the payments. I received another letter again in February stating that I after many attempts to inform me that I had not attempted to repay anything, this angered me so I phoned up from my house and I spoke to a nice gentleman who told me that these were generated letters that on the system my account was showing that I was overdrawn, but not to worry that I would probably get another letter sent as well but to pay it no notice that I was making regular payments and to keep doing so.

So I was surprised when I received a letter from HSBC saying that I had been referred to an collections agency. I phoned up the agency and they told me that they had not received that account. So I believed as I had been advised that this was just a generated message. It wasn't until I received a letter from the collections agency, that I started to question that something was up, I went into branch and told them this. They told me that my account had been closed which surprised me as I had kept to my end of the arrangement. I was on the phone for an hour they told me my agreement had been breached, how? I was making regular payments on time. They told me to phone up the agency and when I did they told me that they were sent my account because I failed to make the account reach zero, not what HSBC had told me, they told me to make a complaint and that they would freeze my account for 4 weeks.

I made an in-store complaint, however today they wrote back to me saying that they could see an agreement yet I still owed them money blah blah and that I should make an arrangement with the agency.

I wondered if anyone could advise me what my next steps could be as this is very frustrating, I did everything that they told me to do yet they still sent my account to a collections service. Thank you

Tixy

Its always best to agree these types of things in writing to try to prevent these issues. Best to stick to letters altogether and not do anything by phone.

Who are the debt collectors? its not metropolitan is it? if so they are just in house collectors, not really a separate company.

I would write to the debt collectors, state how much you can afford to pay a month and ask them to freeze interest & charges. Then either ask for bank details so you can set up a standing order to repay or ask for a paying in book so you can make repayments.