MSE News: Got an HSBC personal loan? You could be due share of £218 million in refund

jaxkesa

jaxkesa wrote: »

Got a letter from HSBC saying FOS has written to them about my complaint. It says they are unable to give me a date when they will be writing to me about my refund but they will be contacting customers "over the course of 2015 and into 2016".

They will however call me within the next 5 days to provide me with a breakdown of any interest refund I may be due. But it doesn't say they will actually give me my refund!

Well HSBC phoned me to say that they couldn't give me a breakdown of the interest refund I am due as they haven't opened my case yet. They will be looking at cases towards the end of the year and into 2016.

So the FOS have not been very helpful.

firewire1200

so following the FOS ruling in my favour, First Direct agreed to settlement and FOS gave 4 weeks, this has now been and gone and surprise suprise nothing from First Direct.

The FOS has now pass this to their enforcement team and escalated to the FCA as apparently the settlement agreement they signed is legally binding,, so guess its a case of more waiting.

Tink2014

well here is the response I got from the ombudsman. I'm puzzled as to why some ppl have had refunds sorted as a result and I got told where to go pretty much.

"I’ve now looked at all the information that you and HSBC have given me. I’m afraid that, based on what I’ve seen, I think HSBC have dealt with your complaint fairly – so I’m not asking them to do any more.

I know this isn’t the answer you were hoping for. But I’ve explained below why I think this is the right outcome – taking into account everything that’s happened.

my position on your complaint

I understand that you are unhappy with the time HSBC is taking to refund the interest due to you, and I appreciate that it is frustrating.

My role as an adjudicator is to give an independent opinion on your complaint. This means I’ll consider what you and HSBC tell me, weigh up the facts of what’s happened, and then suggest a fair way to resolve the situation.

To do this I have to consider if HSBC has done anything wrong or if it has acted unfairly or unreasonably.

I have considered the time that has passed since you first contacted HSBC about the refund, and what has happened since. I’m sorry I cannot say that HSBC has done anything wrong here.

I say this because the refund that is owed to you has come about because of a technical breach in legislation. So, it is money that you weren’t expecting and therefore had already accounted for when you repaid your loan. I cannot say that the time taken to deal with your refund has financially disadvantaged you, but I appreciate that it is disappointing.

In saying this, I wouldn’t think it fair of HSBC to unnecessarily delay refunding you but I don’t think this is the case here. Understandably, HSBC has been contacted by many of its customers who may have been affected by the technical breach in legislation. I think it is reasonable that because of this, HSBC may take some time to get in contact with each of its customers.

I have no reason to think that HSBC are purposefully delaying this process. Rather I think it is more likely than not, there are other customers who must be contacted before you who are being affected financially by this situation. HSBC has a duty to treat its customers fairly. So, although I can understand it is frustrating that it will take some time, I have no doubt that HSBC will be in contact with you again once it has assisted the customers before you.

I understand that initially HSBC did give you a specific time in which your refund should be dealt with, and it was not able to meet that deadline. For this, HSBC paid you £50 to apologise for the inconvenience this caused you. At that same time, HSBC also confirmed to you that it couldn’t clarify when it would contact you directly about the refund. I think HSBC acted fairly in putting this right for you, by acknowledging that it was not able to meet your expectations.

So, in considering everything that’s happened here I cannot say that HSBC have treated you unfairly. As such, I’m not going to recommend that HSBC should do any more than it already has."

any advise appreciated particularly from those who have been successful? were your loans still open or closed?

firewire1200

FD have contacted me today and issued the refund (albeit 3 days after the settlement date and only have an email with enforcement details sent by the FOS)

I would say you need to ask for an ombudsman to rule on your case, they should be acting consistently so if the circumstances are the same (which they sound like they are) the adjudication should act the same.

Slayerx

Firewire do you mind me asking the refund you have been given compared to the loan amount is it a % of the interest that they are refunding?

firewire1200

Hi Slayerx

The refund was for all the interest charged from Month 13 of the loan (the last point at which they could have informed me of my rights) through to the end settlement of the loan (for me this was 17 months later as it was settled in full early)

beeswax95

Tink2014 wrote: »

well here is the response I got from the ombudsman. I'm puzzled as to why some ppl have had refunds sorted as a result and I got told where to go pretty much.

"I’ve now looked at all the information that you and HSBC have given me. I’m afraid that, based on what I’ve seen, I think HSBC have dealt with your complaint fairly – so I’m not asking them to do any more.

I know this isn’t the answer you were hoping for. But I’ve explained below why I think this is the right outcome – taking into account everything that’s happened.

my position on your complaint

I understand that you are unhappy with the time HSBC is taking to refund the interest due to you, and I appreciate that it is frustrating.

My role as an adjudicator is to give an independent opinion on your complaint. This means I’ll consider what you and HSBC tell me, weigh up the facts of what’s happened, and then suggest a fair way to resolve the situation.

To do this I have to consider if HSBC has done anything wrong or if it has acted unfairly or unreasonably.

I have considered the time that has passed since you first contacted HSBC about the refund, and what has happened since. I’m sorry I cannot say that HSBC has done anything wrong here.

I say this because the refund that is owed to you has come about because of a technical breach in legislation. So, it is money that you weren’t expecting and therefore had already accounted for when you repaid your loan. I cannot say that the time taken to deal with your refund has financially disadvantaged you, but I appreciate that it is disappointing.

In saying this, I wouldn’t think it fair of HSBC to unnecessarily delay refunding you but I don’t think this is the case here. Understandably, HSBC has been contacted by many of its customers who may have been affected by the technical breach in legislation. I think it is reasonable that because of this, HSBC may take some time to get in contact with each of its customers.

I have no reason to think that HSBC are purposefully delaying this process. Rather I think it is more likely than not, there are other customers who must be contacted before you who are being affected financially by this situation. HSBC has a duty to treat its customers fairly. So, although I can understand it is frustrating that it will take some time, I have no doubt that HSBC will be in contact with you again once it has assisted the customers before you.

I understand that initially HSBC did give you a specific time in which your refund should be dealt with, and it was not able to meet that deadline. For this, HSBC paid you £50 to apologise for the inconvenience this caused you. At that same time, HSBC also confirmed to you that it couldn’t clarify when it would contact you directly about the refund. I think HSBC acted fairly in putting this right for you, by acknowledging that it was not able to meet your expectations.

So, in considering everything that’s happened here I cannot say that HSBC have treated you unfairly. As such, I’m not going to recommend that HSBC should do any more than it already has."

any advise appreciated particularly from those who have been successful? were your loans still open or closed?

Hi Tink2014


Sorry to hear there has been no outcome yet or rather no positive outcome. I am in the same boat as you so I expect the same sort of reply from the ombudsman. Can I just say that my loan was closed on 01 August 2015. Yet I have not been refunded the interest yet. I was planning on settling the loan a month earlier, but thought I might stand a better chance if the loan was still open, but not so.


So this story that they are spinning about only open loans are dealt with first in my opinion is a little doubtful to say the least. As far as Ombudsman's response goes I think they are misunderstanding our point(complaint). The point that I am complaining about is why HSBC are taking so long to refund us, while others have been sorted. That in itself is unfair. Regardless of whether I was financially disadvantaged or not, they created the expectation that I will get money back. So where is it I ask? Also if they give a very good reason as to why I have to wait instead of using the lame excuse of open and closed loans I would probably understand the whole thing slightly better.

gavvy

I would force it through to the ombudsman now see what he/she says. Case adjudicators just like to close cases as quick as possible.

K-girl

I just heard from HSBC by phone this morning, having rung to ask for confirmation last week whether I was even due a refund (I was starting to second guess myself). My loan was taken out Nov 2011 and closed early Oct 2013. She asked was I inquiring about the "proactive loan interest rebate" (I might have the rebate word wrong but def not refund) which threw me for a second as I hadn't heard an official title before. The lady said my loan "appeared" to have been affected. I asked when I could expect my refund, and she said it wasn't a 'refund' it was a 'goodwill gesture' from the bank because of an 'oversight' in my annual statement (wording that has no doubt been finely tuned over the past year). She also said the first 13 months would not be affected - I pointed out I received my annual statement (which I luckily still have) for the loan before my 13th payment but that was like water off a duck's back. She said it was taking longer than anticipated etc. but that I could expect to hear from them by the end of the year if not early January.

I accepted her confirmation graciously at that moment, as at the end of the day to have confirmation that I'm affected felt like a big step forward, and the 8:30am phone call on a bank holiday (fair play) took me by surprise a little. I'm not sure whether to write to them now and challenge about the 13th month, as my statement was released on 13th Nov 2012, and my scheduled payment for that month was on 25th Nov.

I haven't gone through this forum completely in a while but does anyone have a standard letter in circulation for this?

gavvy

I have been told that HSBC are starting to write to all affected HSBC customers with closed loans in batches every monday starting on 21st September and will have written to every customer by mid November. Letters will be sent out every monday over that period.