HSBC and Santander to refund customers after CMA action

Willing2Learn

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hsbc-and-santander-to-refund-customers-after-cma-action

HSBC and Santander have agreed, following CMA action, to refund customers after they both broke a legal order.

HSBC was found to have twice broken Part 6 of the Competition and Market Authority’s (CMA) Retail Banking Market Investigation Order and is refunding £8m to 115,000 customers.

Santander broke the Order 6 times and has agreed to issue a refund but has yet to confirm the number of customers affected and how much it will refund.

Part 6 of the Order ensures customers receive text alerts before banks charge them for going into an unarranged overdraft, giving them time to take action to avoid any charges. Both banks failed to send alerts in all of the circumstances required by the CMA.

The breaches first occurred in February 2018, when Part 6 of the Order came into force.

born_again

HSBC broke the rules because it had a policy of not disturbing customers after 22:45, the CMA found.

This meant that if customers went overdrawn between that time and 23:45, when balances were calculated, they were not alerted by text.
Santander was the same.

You have to wonder just how many of these that did not get a text that late in the evening would have actually done anything to bring the account back inline.

While a text to tell you that you are over your limit is great. Do people really want them late at night?

Or will they just complain for being woken up....

eskbanker

mrbee wrote: »

Just looking for advice on what steps i should take hearing this news.

I had a personal account with santander in 2010 that regularly went overdrawn and i then became self employed in 2012 and had a business account with them also up until 2016.

[...]

So just wondering what would happen, who should I talk to about this and would this apply to the business account and personal account?

I fear you've misunderstood what this story is all about - it's very specifically some failures since early 2018 to comply with regulations about text alerts introduced in 2017.

It's not some sort of carte blanche to challenge high overdraft charges in previous years, so doesn't actually have any implications for your situation.

Having said that, there's nothing to lose by constructing a complaint to Santander if you feel that their actions (or lack of them) were somehow wrong....

born_again

by mrbee
They were charging me upwards of £500 to £800 a year in charges for direct debits leaving the account early or because of how some stock was ordered it would become overdrawn without realising.

DD's do not go out early. They are regular payments and you should know the date they go out and budget to ensure funds are in place.
Stock ordering, again you must be ordering it. So should know the date it was due to debit your account.

their branch closes exactly at the same time as my shop so i always found it difficult to deposit cash at the end of the day which lead to around £75+ being taken from my account plus other charges.

So just when did you pay your takings in?
The letter whit charges will have had a date they were due. Again why not make sure funds were in place.

Don't think that they had text messages back then. But they did have online banking. Which you could have used.

Sorry, but you seem to have done nothing to help yourself. Given you knew you had problems with the balances on your accounts.

Willing2Learn

mrbee wrote: »

...I had a personal account with santander in 2010 that regularly went overdrawn and i then became self employed in 2012 and had a business account with them also up until 2016.

They were charging me upwards of £500 to £800 a year in charges for direct debits leaving the account early or because of how some stock was ordered it would become overdrawn without realising. their branch closes exactly at the same time as my shop so i always found it difficult to deposit cash at the end of the day which lead to around £75+ being taken from my account plus other charges...

You can make a complaint if you think that you have been treated unfairly. You would stand a chance of having your complaint upheld if:

• You were in real financial hardship. For example, if you were struggling to buy necessities and pay bills, or you had lost your job.
• The charges were unfair compared to what you did. For example, if you went overdrawn £1 and were charged £35.
• You were stuck in a spiral of charges. This might have happened if the charges kept putting you into the red, and the overdraft kept costing you more in charges

Have a look at the following MSE article for guidance.
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/bank-charges/

mrbee

I believe I have misunderstood and appreciate the positive comments to help me understand what this news means to my blunder.

I thought this forum was for people looking for some help or advice with their money situation past or present, pretty much this whole website is for people who have had money trouble or are looking to save money. Wasnt really looking for criticism on what happened with my finances, just gave a brief description so theres no need to try to pick apart only what was mentioned.

Things can happen with card payments where they come out at a date and the thing with money is that you dont always get it at the right times hence the situation i was in at the time.

Il delete the original post and back away now cheers for the help and advice for those that shared! :beer: