Need some serious help please re: HSBC

equiimedian

Hi anyone :-) Sorry for the impromptu title but I have very serious problems with HSBC. I am registered disabled, am a Hillsborough Survivor, have not worked since 1991 when Hillsborough caught up with me. I am still, and will always remain "broken beyond repair with no hope of recovery".

It all started back in 1990 when I applied for a mortgage with the then Midland Bank. I got the mortgage, was promised the £10,000 bridging loan to renovate my newly acquired property, and was at the time still working in a family business.

After signing for the house, the bank then withdrew its bridging offer. (this period was known as black monday if I'm not mistaken). This left me with an uninhabitable house ... literally.

The issues start with the pension I was sold at the time of the mortgage and the PPI I was forced to take as part of a life endowment policy.

It may have been about 12months before I fell seriously ill due to Hillsborough induced injuries. In short " I lost ALL my abilities to communicate / lapsed into a waking coma / waking comatose state of life (bare minimum to live) I was seriously ill upto 2008 when I miraculously woke up from this comatose state. (this is why I need help now)

To save space and not to confuse the point, the aftermath of falling ill is as follows :

I was charged a total of £37,000 in bank charges and ppi charges, and over drawn charges, all the while I protested about the PPI, that I was literally forced to sign. The banks regularly took my 1st charge DHSS mortgage money and used it to pay ppi and bank charges, all the while they racked up serious mortgage arrears.
Eventually I had to re-mortgage to pay mortgage arrears. This was because my life endowment was worth £7000'ish. They only paid me £4800 after charges for cashing in, then they took another £2100 as arrears on my mortgage.
However " they had also pushed my mortgage from £39,750 to £42, 000 to clear the arrears. In effect I paid the arrears twice. (It took me years to figure out where the other £2100 had gone)

I was forced again to take out a very expensive ppi despite them knowing I was by now known to be seriously ill and long term unemployed. When I found the strengths to confront them, which wasn't often, I was always threatened with "repossession" if I continued.

"The next few lines are true NOT fiction"

Sometime around 2001 I eventually found the courage to contact the Banking Ombudsman in London to ask for advice / help. My situation with Midland had become absurd in the extreme.

I spoke to a very nice lady for over 2 hrs, explaining what was happening, reading her facts from letters from Midland / account statements. She actually cried, told me she was horrified and would look into it all for me. I was given a phone number to call her directly in a weeks time.

When I rang back a week later a man answered. I asked for her by name and he said " I can't answer that ". This same reply was used for every single question I asked even when I said "but you're the ombudsman its your job to help me". I swear this went on for at least 10mins before I gave in totally bemused to what was going on. I assumed I had struck some kind of raw nerve / got the wrong person.

I called back a few mins after hanging up. Got the same man, who then told me to "f**koff". Those where his words.

I have never really had the courage to fight them again until now. Since 2008 my health has improved steadily and I want to fight them for ALL of what they owe me, but cannot do this alone. Someone please "help me". This is not a joke, this is real, so please don't write to me on here to make fun of me.

The complete story of what Midland / HSBC have done to me in the last 24years beggars belief, and I am genuinely frightened.

"I have every single letter ever written by them to me since 1989 AND every single bank statement. YES I still have them all, every single one".

If you can help, please make yourself known / write to me here and I will listen :-) This is so complex that I can't do it alone. My guesstimate is that I'm owed circa £70,000 to £100,000. This is how much they have overcharged me. It is mostly fees for being overdrawn for paying them fees.

My sincere best wishes to everyone, yours Anthony.

equiimedian

PS: My main concern is "limitations act" and "the total owed". The latter causes me concern because the higher the claim back, the more determined banks are not to admit culpability / avoid payout.

Some might argue that the flipside of this is "the banks have not repossessed yet, so I should count myself lucky". This is a tricky area for me because in one sense that would be true, however, " I would not be in this dire position if they had simply treated me fairly from the outset".

It is illegal to take DHSS mortgage money paid direct to them and use it for any other purpose, regardless of other debts. Midland knew this from the outset, but did it anyway for about 9years. Only when the CAB got invovled in 2000 did it stop. The distress they have caused almost killed me, and took me to the brink of suicide ,many many times.

You would be right to think I am angry. I cannot comprehend why they treated me so badly for so long ? Maybe they hope I will die before anyone helps me. This is what I genuinely think.

Thank You to anyone who may help, yours Anthony.

-taff

I suggest you visit your local CAB.

equiimedian

Thanks Taff , but I've already done that. The CAB have very limited powers these days on what they may or may not tell a client. Besides, "the experts are in here" :-)

Was hoping someone might be able tell me where to start / what to expect ie:

1) start a normal claim for ppi with hsbc and see what happens

2) start a normal claim for bank charges with hsbc and see what happens

3) write " a certain kind of letter to hsbc " and see what happens re: investigation of my account

4) perhaps meet someone who is aware of longterm abuse from a bank (24years of financial abuse)

5) hear from folk with experience of what happened with the Ombudsman

6) hear from other disabled folk who have suffered abuse from banks

7) hear from someone who knows about, "stolen pension funds"

8) hear from someone who knows about "illegal activities on accounts"

9) perhaps be guided on what NOT to do if I want my affairs with Midland/HSBC investigated

10) perhaps hear from someone who admits my story is extreme / rare / hard to believe / criminal.

I've had a fair few views, but no replies, so am feeling a bit miffed / concerned that I am a "tumbleweeder". I am hoping someone in here can find the courage to "tell me what they know" and the best way forward :-)

In context : " Just based on what I've extensively read in here re: ppi my claim would have to be worked out as follows,

"account sent into arrears to pay for ppi, then charged for this unauthorised overdraft,
then charged to send the payment for the charges,
then charged for bringing it back as a non paid charge.

Then adding interest on the charges, adding it to the deficit on my account, then charging to send my mortgage payment, then charging to send it back as unpaid because it is a few pounds short, then putting my mortgage in arrears, then charging for that.

Sometimes I was charged as many as 5 times for a few pounds being short, then had to find the extra money to pay all these charges from sales of personal items to prevent further charges, only for it to continue month after month after month. It would be fair to say that the whole thing pushed me to the edge of bankruptcy.

I live in hope that 1 day someone will "advise me on how to make this stop". With great respect to anyone reading this, "I am not some sort of nutter who knows nothing about banks", instead I am a frightened man, bemused by the banks actions.

It wasn't just over zealous sales it was criminal, thats a fact, but to whom does 1 turn in cases like this ? My abuse started when ppi was first born and it still continues. Perhaps my case will expose "The True Extent of whats been going on" ?

I get the impression that this site and its reasons for existence are to "bring the banks to heal over these types of scandals" and offer genuine advice re: what to do when a case like this appears. I feared posting here would have a negative effect because it is a HUGE scandal, not a minor ppi claim.

All the best, Anthony.

_Andy_

"I get the impression that this site and its reasons for existence are to "bring the banks to heal over these types of scandals"

Predominantly the site is an affiliate marketing site which has made the owner a fortune.

meer53

You make a lot of very serious accusations against HSBC/Midland. If i were you, i'd get some legal advice.

Personally i feel you're too late to claim anything but maybe someone with legal training will know different.

equiimedian

Hi Andy :-) "Predominantly the site is an affiliate marketing site which has made the owner a fortune".

This is perhaps true my friend, but IMHO it is a partial truth. Without the owners previous hard work many millions of people would still be being ripped off for billions £'s. It is the owners input & knowledge that has lead to much of what is written about in here to have become public domain knowledge.

Where would people have gone, or who would they have turned to without him & here ? All the best, Anthony.

...........

Hi Meer53 :-) Thank you for the response my friend. You seem to have grasped the reality of what I have written. Tis indeed a quite absurd / bizarre / frightening situation I find myself in.

Perhaps it was that in my early years I was inadvertently unearthing a truth not meant to be known ? But it is now safe to come out & ask for what is rightly mine ?

Perhaps it is that individuals within the Midland bank simply used their own methods to silence me / prevent my case from becoming public ?

Perhaps my account was ALL a mistake, though this is highly unlikely given the letters I wrote & their responses. The only good is that I have ALL the proof of what happened to me / continues still.

For me the ultimate question is "why me ?". After surviving Hillsborough was this not enough to contend with without false accounting ?

I am tempted to simply apply for refunds of both ppi & charges seperately and see what happens. However I suspect that ANY investigation of my account records will ring alarm bells for the whole establishment, Ombudsman included.

I have records of what happened with the Ombudsman(unbeknowns to them). Dates, times, names, phone records.

Midland have actively stopped me from selling my house on several occassions by asking for the "full amount od arrears to be paid" before they will let me sell (yes they have a right to do this). The arrears are capital side ONLY, NOT increased debt via interest. I only owe £37,000 settlement now instead of £42,000, yet I must pay £14,000+ arrears before I can sell ? How strange is that for a normal person to endure ?

Thanks again for replying :-) You are right my friend in that they are very serious allegations against a very powerful bank, yet proveable they are. I just want to move on, regardless of WHY this is happening to me :-)

Hopefully posting here will bring some answers. I don't know what I stumbled into back then, but perhaps those days are gone now, and mine is to be proven to be a simple case of " Greedy Bank Workers abusing a very sick, defenceless disabled person because they could ". Either way, what has happened to me is abuse and nothing less. All the best, yours Anthony.

_Andy_

"This is perhaps true my friend, but IMHO it is a partial truth. Without the owners previous hard work many millions of people would still be being ripped off for billions £'s. It is the owners input & knowledge that has lead to much of what is written about in here to have become public domain knowledge."

Fair point but I feel many people (not saying you, just generally) miss the point that ML is little more than a brand (and a very good one which is well marketed), not some regular 'man in the street' (although the branding pushes this, and very well).

Many on here see him as some God when in reality he's basically a businessman

equiimedian

Hi again Andy :-) Nowt wrong with being clever and cashing in buddy. No rip offs here. No fee consultations and more FREE advice than a Philadelphia Lawyer could supply.

"What do you think about my case ?"

Later Andy, Anthony.

-taff

You've got so many compalints about this bank it's difficult to help. Perosnally, I only know about PPI complaining, so, if you have all the paperwork, follow the steps in this [except for the bit about asking for agreements] and be aware that because you owe them money they may not give you anything back but use it against your arrears
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/ppi-loan-insurance

As for bank charges, i think you've missed the boat on reclaiming those, but not sure,, have a search around in the 'Reclaim 100's' section above and see
what it says.

As for everything else, i can't help. I would re-iterate that you need legal help, but in your position, that's probably not an option.

nite_nurse

Hello everyone on here :A
I recently tried to claim PPI which i am 99% certain I had on car finance some years ago. (The car was £5000 and i paid back £10800). I remember buying the car which was from a dealership some 40 miles away from where I live. I was told this was the only finance deal they could do as i had not had any previous credit history (I did have a mortgage at the time!!) Anyway I was not very savvy to finance and just wanted a new car:j
The salesman actually brought the car to my house with his pal and i signed for it in my own lounge! Guess they were keen uh?
With advice from MSE I wrote to Santander (who had taken over from GE Finance) and they couldn't do anything without ref no. So I got this and they still couldn't proceed. FOS said i need to get in touch with dealer which I did and was asked to write to Pendragon which i did. Pendragon said, some weeks later, that they cannot proceed because it was 'time barred' and 'before 2006'.
Can anyone offer me advice please? I read on MSE possibly take them to court?? How? Small claims perhaps? And will i need a ppi company to help or could i do it alone?
Much appreciated for any advice.
xx