Missing interest from child’s account

j3ffn3ll

We opened an HSBC savings account for my 2 children aged 9 and 12 last November at 5% interest and have just had the annual statements through.

My 9 year old has accrued £123 in interest on the initial deposit of £3000 and his sibling accrued nothing.

When I contacted HSBC they told me the sibling has 2 accounts and the initial deposit was put into a current account and not the savings account, therefore had accrued zero interest.

I am a bit perplexed as I obviously wanted both children to get interest and I opened the accounts in the exact same way. As my eldest was 11, they qualified for a debit card account but I didn’t realise they would be opening 2 accounts.

I called to ask what had happened and they simply said we had missed out on the interest that year and offered to move the balance so we would start to accrue interest.

My question is that should the bank not have contacted us to let us know the opening deposit was in the wrong account? Is there any way to claim any interest from the previous year in this instance? I feel bad that one of my children got interest and the other got nothing.

Brie

How would the bank know the money was in the wrong account?

You could perhaps add a suitable amount into the account that missed out to make things even.

Emmia

j3ffn3ll said:

We opened an HSBC savings account for my 2 children aged 9 and 12 last November at 5% interest and have just had the annual statements through.

My 9 year old has accrued £123 in interest on the initial deposit of £3000 and his sibling accrued nothing.

When I contacted HSBC they told me the sibling has 2 accounts and the initial deposit was put into a current account and not the savings account, therefore had accrued zero interest.

I am a bit perplexed as I obviously wanted both children to get interest and I opened the accounts in the exact same way. As my eldest was 11, they qualified for a debit card account but I didn’t realise they would be opening 2 accounts.

I called to ask what had happened and they simply said we had missed out on the interest that year and offered to move the balance so we would start to accrue interest.

My question is that should the bank not have contacted us to let us know the opening deposit was in the wrong account? Is there any way to claim any interest from the previous year in this instance? I feel bad that one of my children got interest and the other got nothing.

How were the bank to know you put the deposit in  the wrong account? 

Presumably you've got online access or received statements, did you not notice the name of the accounts were different? my HSBC savings accounts have 'Save' in the account name that I can see in the app, and the current accounts have 'Bank'

I can't see you've got a claim unfortunately.

eskbanker

j3ffn3ll said:

When I contacted HSBC they told me the sibling has 2 accounts and the initial deposit was put into a current account and not the savings account, therefore had accrued zero interest.

I am a bit perplexed as I obviously wanted both children to get interest and I opened the accounts in the exact same way. As my eldest was 11, they qualified for a debit card account but I didn’t realise they would be opening 2 accounts.

Are you saying that there was nothing provided in paper form or online that made it clear that two accounts were opened for the 11 year old?  How did you know where to pay the £3K that went into the current account?

To be fair, I think HSBC's policy of automatically opening a current account for 11+ year olds has caused confusion before, but they do explain it at https://www.hsbc.co.uk/savings/products/mysavings/

xylophone

The OP says that a savings account was opened for each child.

I don't understand how, even if a current account was automatically opened for the older child (and I have to say I don't see that such an account should be opened automatically), why the £3000 did not go into the savings account that was definitely opened at the request of the parent.

In the parent's place I'd be inclined to make a formal complaint in writing.

boingy

Well, one of the siblings is richer to the tune of £123. The other has learned an important early lesson in how banks cannot be trusted!

Probably worth a complaint. It's unlikely to get you the interest but it might earn a few tenners as a goodwill gesture.

refluxer

HSBC do make it clear that a MyAccount current account will be opened alongside the MySavings account from the age of 11 upwards...

• On your 11th birthday, we'll open a MyAccount / Premier MyAccount for you, complete with your own HSBC Visa Debit Card to shop in stores, online or use at cash machines.

...but it seems unfortunate that the money for the 12 year-old ended up in the wrong place, especially as a branch visit should have made intentions clear.

Do HSBC not issue regular paper or online statements for these accounts ? A quick check of those (or the online banking account if not) would have revealed which account the money was in. Whenever moving money from one account to another, checking it has reached the intended destination is always sensible.

xylophone

HSBC do make it clear that a MyAccount current account will be opened alongside the MySavings account from the age of 11 upwards...

I still don't understand how money sent to the savings account ended up in the  current account.

sheramber

Did the parent send the money to the current account without realising it was not the savings account?

Emmia

sheramber said:

Did the parent send the money to the current account without realising it was not the savings account?

I suspect this is what happened... And then the OP didn't check the app / statements etc. which would have identified the issue sooner.

masonic

boingy said:

Well, one of the siblings is richer to the tune of £123. The other has learned an important early lesson in how banks cannot be trusted!

There are two important lessons here:

1) Take all reasonable steps to ensure the details you use to set up payments are to the correct recipient and account.

2) Regularly check your accounts to make sure that everything is in order.