How can I avoid HSBC's new graduate interest rates?

cam101

feisty1985 wrote: »

Hi all,

I've just been into HSBC on the back of receiving their baffling letter conveniently dated "July 2007" so you do not actually know when/if it was received in relation to your account changing.

When i look on my internet banking the account has already been changed to a graduate account.

However.... the lady i spoke to in the branch informed me that i am in fact going to receive the first year at £1500 interest free overdraft followed by £1000 interest free the following year. This is not what the letter or accompanying pamphlet state at all and she basically thought i was being stupid which i did not appreciate.

My advice is to check with your branch whether the overdraft will remain free (or ring up). Even with this new information i am still inclined to switch to NatWest or another bank who know what they're doing. Surely these letters are going to cost HSBC a lot of customers whether the information is true or not. Why pay interest when you do not have to?

Hope this helps.

This happened to me when I went in to enquire about it too. After insisting AND showing her the letter, she said "oh, I didn't know about this" and proceeded to leave me sitting in a room for 25 MINUTES while she went to find out. The response was "tough luck that's how it is".

So... I have written three stinky letters of complaint to HSBC, I encourage others to do the same and I will post on here what response I get!

phlash

I have written complaints about HSBC's conduct challenging them on clause 5.3 and 6.4 of the Banking Code of Conduct. I am waiting a 2nd reply. The initial one only said I would be charged (was a general response to the grad account complaints I believe), so I replied and asked them to answer my initial question about their code of conduct and said I would be contacting the financial Ombudsman if their reply was not satisfactory, its been 3 days now.

danish

I have had no reply for what must be now 10 working days. I did however receive confirmation that they had received my complaint, so it’s not all dome and gloom!

hb21

Thanks everyone, I've been reading through this thread and I've now decided to move to RBS. HSBC treated me in a similar way to everyone else, I got the letter on the saturday afternoon so obviously couldn't get to a branch until the monday by which point it had already changed over. I managed to persuade them to change it back to a student account as I will be doing teacher training next year but I just did that so that I didn't have to pay any charges until I could find myself an account with another bank as after the way HSBC have treated me I no longer want to give them my custom. I've applied online for the RBS graduate account online, just waiting for the info to come through. I'm really glad I found this forum!

danish

I have just recieved a letter regarding my complaint I made to HSBC.

I shall copy it up when I have a chance, however the jist was that no interest will be charged untill 30 days after I recieved the letter. The letter does howevere complelty miss the point by stating that I should have known the account was going to turn into a graduate account and the rest didnt matter. Interestinly the letter was dated the 13th of July, I hadn't even made a complaint then!

rizel23

Just a note to anyone applying for a account with the RBS...do it!!

I have £7k of credit card debet from being a student and go accepted fine, and the adviser was really nice bloke, and got the 2k interest free overdraft!

RudeYute

Hi,

Does anyone know when the article by Martin will be updated? Says June/July on the page, but not been done yet.

Also, whats required to change? I am probably just into my OD atm with HSBC and they will probably convert it to a grad account sometime soon.
Obviously, I want as big and long interest free OD as possible, and I am still looking for work, so can't really pay my OD off atm.

emma396

andrewseward wrote: »

I had a quick look around and Barclay's graduate account looks good, here's the overdraft details:

- Year 1: up to £3,000
- Year 2: up to £2,000
- Year 3: up to £1,000
- Year 4: up to £500
- Year 5+: up to £200.

is that a non fee paying graduate account? i can only find the graduate additions account on their website which has a £5 monthly fee.

danish

I believe that this is the £5 a month account. I use the mobile phone insurance and breakdown cover that your £5 a month pays for and whack the excess overdraft into an ISA (an extra £1250 more than HSBC were offering me).

I believe there is probably better account around, but if you use the incentives or have a large sum of debt I believe the Barclays account is a adequate option.

Have a search around for what best suits your needs.

P.S. I will get around to writing up that letter at some point.