Unjust Bad Credit Rating. Can I get help in my situation?

sebbyh1

I am hoping you may be able to help me.

I am currently in a predicament regarding what i believe is an unfair situation.

In 2003, I became a student at the University of Leeds. As a result, I opened a student bank account with HSBC.


I had after University moved back to London where I was from and opened a current account with Halifax.
While my account had been maxed on my student account, I had £30 per month going into the account to pay it off at a rate that I felt I could manage.

I had gained employment back in Leeds Police and as a result I moved back to Leeds in late 2008. As a result, I went to the Park Row branch in Leeds City Centre and notified them of my change of address when I moved up. I did not receive any mail to my Leeds address. This was of no immediate concern to me until I later noticed in my email account that HSBC had been trying to contact me.

As a result of this, I contacted HSBC and was informed that they had been sending me mail but they had indeed not sent this to my new Leeds address, and it had been going to my previous address in

Despite me paying money into my HSBC account, it transpired that the account had been closed and my account had been taken over by Metropolitan Debt Collectors. Obviously I received no notification of this due to the mail not being posted to my address.

As soon as I found out that the debt collectors had taken on my overdraft repayment, I arranged a repayment with them at £50 per month.

I have since been paying this back every month without fail.

I have today gone into my current Halifax branch and discussed the possibility of a loan for purchasing a car soon. They refused the loan as they said the rest of this loan is showing a default and has severley damaged my credit rating.

I had no knowledge that HSBC were trying to chase me for money to close my student account. I was not informed that they had gone ahead and closed my account having obviously not updated my address details as they said they had. As soon as I had been informed that the debt collectors had taken my account debt over I promptly arranged payment. When i knew, I attended at the HSBC branch in Headingley explaining I had received no correspondence and the woman working there said 'Its not our problem now its with the debt collectors'.

I am a hard working person in employment. I have made payments as discussed promptly and regularly.

I find it somewhat outrageous, that due to the ignorance of HSBC and poor customer relations between them and myself, I have now been told that as it stands I am unable to take a loan out or get a credit card for a period of six years.

I feel this is very unfair as I have made payments whenever requested and I have been able to make payments without problems. HSBC have shut my account and I have not received any information with regards to this and I was still paying money into the account that didnt even exist!

I tried to discuss this with HSBC at the time i found out and received the cold shoulder. I did not feel that there was a great need to as I arranged to pay it back, however I now feel it important to raise this concern as it is having a severley negative impact on me for potentially the next 6 years when the reality is, I earn a good salary and would be a good candidate to borrow money. I respectfully request any advice or information in relation to how this matter can be resolved for me as I feel it is a huge problem for me.

gizmo111

What date is the default on your credit file?

FBaby

HSBC did the same to me, went into my local branch, filled in form to change my address, was told it would take a few days. 3 months later, having not received any bank statement, I checked on my ebanking account and realised that I was still registered at my old address. I wasn't impressed indeed, although in my case, it had no consequences.

The question is, was there a period after which the closed the account when they did not accept your £30 before it went to the debt collector? If that is the case, then frankly you should have picked up that something was wrong and took it upon yourself to act on it. If however they continued to take the £30 monthly, but forward the debt to the debt collectors immediately after closing the account, then that is out of order. In this instance, I would request to meet with the manager, ask for an investigation as to why your address wasn't changed (did you fill in a form, spoke to someone?) and ask that they look into the case closely. If not satisfied, you can always complain, but I assume ultimately, it is our responsibility, as customers, to insure that our address has indeed been changed, especially if we don't receive any correspondance at all (even if banking on-line, there is always stuff coming, information notice, advertising etc...)