Bank admin error - Negative marker on my bank account

BJ6969

I have a second account with HSBC that they put a "marker" on indicating I was poor creditor. It was put on my account for 9 years unknown to me. The matter only came up recently when I made an enquiry with my bank for an over draft facility. I raised a complaint and after their investigation they admitted it was an admin error.
In short they could not see why the "marker" was on my account, no letters were raised by the bank advising me of the "marker" on my account, and unknown to me the marker would have shown when I requested credit from other sources which were refused over the years gone by. Also when I made the enquiry I was past around 5 times and was on the phone for nearly 3 hours!
The bank has offered me compensation of £250 for having the marker incorrectly on my account for 9 years. This is the figure based on banking guidelines, however I argued that this error has had an impact on my ability to borrow. They now advise I should to go back 9 years on my credit file to show where I have been refused credit and supply that information and they will reasses the offer they gave me.
Realistically what can I expect. Despite guidelines I think £250 is a bit of an insult as one only applies for credit when you have finacial support needs and tends to be a stressful time in anyone's life. Also if I do go down the legal route after or before the ombudsman,  what's my chances of success of getting a larger sum for compensation as the bank admit their error. Any caselaw examples of compensation values paid out to customers?
Always grateful for information and guidance.

MorningcoffeeIV

What is this 'poor creditor' marker?

You initially said that HSBC added it to your account, but later that others see it, meaning that it would be on your credit files.

What exactly is the detail?

Section62

BJ6969 said:

I have a second account with HSBC that they put a "marker" on indicating I was poor creditor. It was put on my account for 9 years unknown to me. The matter only came up recently when I made an enquiry with my bank for an over draft facility. I raised a complaint and after their investigation they admitted it was an admin error.
In short they could not see why the "marker" was on my account, no letters were raised by the bank advising me of the "marker" on my account, and unknown to me the marker would have shown when I requested credit from other sources which were refused over the years gone by. Also when I made the enquiry I was past around 5 times and was on the phone for nearly 3 hours!
The bank has offered me compensation of £250 for having the marker incorrectly on my account for 9 years. This is the figure based on banking guidelines, however I argued that this error has had an impact on my ability to borrow. They now advise I should to go back 9 years on my credit file to show where I have been refused credit and supply that information and they will reasses the offer they gave me.
Realistically what can I expect. Despite guidelines I think £250 is a bit of an insult as one only applies for credit when you have finacial support needs and tends to be a stressful time in anyone's life. Also if I do go down the legal route after or before the ombudsman,  what's my chances of success of getting a larger sum for compensation as the bank admit their error. Any caselaw examples of compensation values paid out to customers?
Always grateful for information and guidance.

If you can't evidence your loss then going down the 'legal' route is probably going to achieve little more than costing you money.

If the error had no real-world impact on you until right at the end of the 9 year period then persuading a court you've lost anything could be tricky.

From HSBC £250 is a good offer.  Unless you've actually lost more (in real hard cash terms) you may want to take what is on offer.

Nasqueron

Was the marker on your credit file? You could check your reports from Experian, Equifax, TransUnion to confirm this but realistically, if you have not been financially impacted, as you say, what provable loss can you document? The fact you could have been affected is irrelevant if you weren't

If it's an internal marker for HSBC only you would not be affected for credit for anyone else

MEM62

What 'marker' are you referring to.  

And what loans have you been refused over the nine year period?  If you applied and were declined did you not check your credit history to see why?  If you haven't applied for anything then you have not had any quantifiable losses and the £250 offered is about as good as you are going to get.     

born_again

Marker would not be seen after 6 years anyway.
What ever the marker is..

fatbelly

BJ6969 said:

I have a second account with HSBC that they put a "marker" on indicating I was poor creditor. It was put on my account for 9 years unknown to me. The matter only came up recently when I made an enquiry with my bank for an over draft facility. I raised a complaint and after their investigation they admitted it was an admin error.
In short they could not see why the "marker" was on my account, no letters were raised by the bank advising me of the "marker" on my account, and unknown to me the marker would have shown when I requested credit from other sources which were refused over the years gone by. Also when I made the enquiry I was past around 5 times and was on the phone for nearly 3 hours!
The bank has offered me compensation of £250 for having the marker incorrectly on my account for 9 years. This is the figure based on banking guidelines, however I argued that this error has had an impact on my ability to borrow. They now advise I should to go back 9 years on my credit file to show where I have been refused credit and supply that information and they will reasses the offer they gave me.
Realistically what can I expect. Despite guidelines I think £250 is a bit of an insult as one only applies for credit when you have finacial support needs and tends to be a stressful time in anyone's life. Also if I do go down the legal route after or before the ombudsman,  what's my chances of success of getting a larger sum for compensation as the bank admit their error. Any caselaw examples of compensation values paid out to customers?
Always grateful for information and guidance.

well I'm guessing here but is this an AP marker on a loan or credit card?

I think removal of the mark and £250 compensation is probably going to be seen as fair if you escal ated it to FOS

The moral is to check your files regularly and challenge anything odd. There's no need to be obsessive about it. For most people, once per year is adequate

Edit: you can do FOS, then court, but not the other way around. There's no downside to going to FOS, but court requires money up front, and carries more risk

boingy

£250 seems like reasonable compensation for something you didn't notice for 9 years unless you've had applications rejected for various things over that time.

BJ6969

Thanks everyone. 
I didn't check why I was rejected for finance and should have done so way back then. Also just to confirm the marker is seen by anyone searching my bank for credit referencing and was on my file for 9 years and yes should have been removed after 6 years but was not until this month.
I'll do FOS and supply my bank with my credit file. Anyone have an idea how much more the bank will go above  the £250 when I supply the info from my credit file? Just want to see if it's worth the hassle referencing through on of the agencies.
Thanks again everyone 🙏

BJ6969

Btw. The marker is not seen on your personal statements or any other of uour bank documents. You only know it's there if or when they tell you.

eskbanker

BJ6969 said:

just to confirm the marker is seen by anyone searching my bank for credit referencing and was on my file for 9 years and yes should have been removed after 6 years but was not until this month.

Just to be clear, institutions don't search your bank for credit referencing, they search the credit rating agencies - do you have clear evidence from some or all of the credit agencies that there was misleading information reported to them by your bank?