HSBC credit card – 'adjustment to your account'

microlambert

Bit of a weird one with my HSBC credit card account. In 2021, I bought something online for around £1300 using my credit card, then paid off the balance. But the product couldn't be delivered, so I had the money refunded, and my account was then in credit by that amount. In April last year, I got my credit card statement and saw that the money had been taken out of my account – the balance was now £0 again. The transaction was described as 'adjustment to your account'. I've got no idea why it was taken, and understandably, I'd like it back!

I phoned HSBC at the time, and they were no use – couldn't tell me what happened, and didn't seem to understand what the issue I wanted resolving was. Eventually they said someone would give me a call back, but they never did. I've just tried again, and they're still no help – shunted me around from one department to another, including fraud who apparently can't help me because there's been no fraud, and dispute resolution, who can't help me because there's no dispute raised.

So my questions are: does anyone know why this might have happened, so I can explain the problem better? And is there a way to escalate it beyond the telephone banking people who can't resolve it? Thanks!

grumbler

microlambert said:

I phoned HSBC at the time, and they were no use – couldn't tell me what happened, and didn't seem to understand what the issue I wanted resolving was. Eventually they said someone would give me a call back, but they never did. I've just tried again, and they're still no help – shunted me around from one department to another, including fraud who apparently can't help me because there's been no fraud, and dispute resolution, who can't help me because there's no dispute raised.

There is another department - complaints.
https://www.hsbc.co.uk/help/feedback-and-complaints/

WillPS

My best guess:

HSBC opened a Chargeback at your request
Refund was issued
Merchant challenged chargeback and so charge reapplied to your account.

HSBC should have kept you up to date though. My next step if I were you would be to submit a formal complaint in writing, not supposing any of the above but just saying there is no reason communicated why this charge should have been applied, multiple attempts to determine a reason with their customer service have been fruitless and you want your money back (+ some compensation for time and any distress caused on your part).

la531983

The money refunded how? By the retailer or a S75/chargeback?

microlambert

la531983 said:

The money refunded how? By the retailer or a S75/chargeback?

By the merchant. I didn't have to do anything, they just told me the order couldn't be fulfilled, and issued a refund which showed up on my credit card balance.

microlambert

WillPS said:

My best guess:

HSBC opened a Chargeback at your request
Refund was issued
Merchant challenged chargeback and so charge reapplied to your account.

HSBC should have kept you up to date though. My next step if I were you would be to submit a formal complaint in writing, not supposing any of the above but just saying there is no reason communicated why this charge should have been applied, multiple attempts to determine a reason with their customer service have been fruitless and you want your money back (+ some compensation for time and any distress caused on your part).

Thanks for replying. The refund was issued by the merchant, there was no request to HSBC, so not sure it was that. 

Update: I called again today, and finally managed to speak to someone who understood what was going on, and more importantly had access to the case history. They could see that the upshot of my call last year was that HSBC said they would refund the money. I'd forgotten that bit, because they never did. So now a complaint has been raised, both for the initial debit, and the fact that they said they'd refund me but still haven't over a year later. Fingers crossed.

WillPS

You're most welcome. What you say makes perfect sense, thank you for updating so that it might help someone viewing this thread in the future.

Grumpy_chap

Credit cards are not designed to sit with a credit balance for a long time - it looks like the OP was holding the credit on the card for a year.
Maybe HSBC saw that and deemed the account inactive.
The simplest thing to do when holding a credit balance is to spend that down.
Anyway, it looks as though the OP has resolved things.

WillPS

Grumpy_chap said:

Credit cards are not designed to sit with a credit balance for a long time - it looks like the OP was holding the credit on the card for a year.
Maybe HSBC saw that and deemed the account inactive.
The simplest thing to do when holding a credit balance is to spend that down.
Anyway, it looks as though the OP has resolved things.

Credit cards can't simply become inactive and deprive the customer of any credit balance. They'd have to return funds if they closed an account.