HSBC are trying to blackmail me (badly)

harryjuju

ill try and keep this brief.

i have an ISA with hsbc that has taken 5 years to accumulate 15k cash. i went to the bank at tax year end as i do every year to ask that they pay the lump sum annual interest to a different account. the girl wrote out a slip and asked me to sign it (as they do every year) and i signed it without reading it properly as i knew what we had discussed.

on the first day of the new tax year my interest was transferred and i was happy. on the next day they transferred my WHOLE ISA across!!!! now i have lost my tax free status on my ISA as they are unable to reinstate it due to me signing this slip (even though they admit it was their inexperienced staff members fault) due to the inland revenue's conditions.

they have now offered to pay me the interest i would have earnt on a monthly basis instead of offering me a lump sum. Now i have no choice but to stay with them to get my compensation- i feel that they are using very dirty tactics and that they arent losing out but again i am as i have no choice but to stay.

please can anyone give me some advice as im am FURIOUS with this insult of a compensation offer.

harryjuju

i must add that the slip stated that i wished to 'transfer my funds from my isa upon maturity' which at the time i didnt think could be taken both the way that i wanted to read it and also the way that they took it. stupid, i know, but they have it on their records that it was her fault.

Aegis

First of all, I don't think this is blackmail. Blackmail is when someone threatens to do something if you don't give them something they want. This doesn't appear to be that situation.

Secondly, you say in your first paragraph that you signed a written instruction to your bank without reading it properly. You can't really blame them for carrying out your written instructions, especially not when you consider that the team that deals with most ISAs is located away from the branch networks.

You might well have a legitimate complaint against the employee who handed you something to sign, and if you kick up enough of a fuss the bank may be able to reinstate your ISA if it was shown to be an error on their part, but because of the written mandate to close the account, there might be a problem proving that it was entirely their fault.

I hope you can get your ISA back as you requested, but more often than not when people accidentally withdraw from their ISA, they will only get a compensation offer at best.

YorkshireBoy

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/isa-guidance-notes-2008.pdf
(see page 91)

Aegis

harryjuju wrote: »

i must add that the slip stated that i wished to 'transfer my funds from my isa upon maturity' which at the time i didnt think could be taken both the way that i wanted to read it and also the way that they took it. stupid, i know, but they have it on their records that it was her fault.

If it is on record as her fault, then they should be able to reinstate the ISA according to HMRC rules.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/isa/bullletin22.htm wrote:

Money removed from a PEP or ISA in error by the manager

As you know, the general rule is that where money is withdrawn from a PEP or ISA, it cannot be reinstated.
Currently there are two exceptions to this general rule. They both deal with situations where the manager removed money from the investor's PEP or ISA in error.
The first is where the investor gave the manager clear instructions and the manager misinterpreted these instructions. For example, the investor instructed the manager to close his (her) PEP and the manager also closed the investor's ISA. It does not apply where the investor's instructions were unclear or capable of being misunderstood. At present we allow the manager to reinstate the money removed from the PEP or ISA in error where

• the manager sent the investor a cheque and the investor did not cash it (he ripped it up, returned it to the manager or held on to it, unbanked while clarifying the situation with the manager), or
• the manager transferred the money removed from the ISA to another account under his control and, since that date, the account balance has never fallen below the balance immediately after the amount removed from the PEP or ISA in error by the manager was paid into it. For example, the manager removed £3,000 from the investor's ISA in error and paid it into another account under his control in May 2005. Immediately after the payment was credited to the account the account balance was £2,500. The money could be reinstated if, since then, the account balance has never fallen below £2,500.

Sealy

Any financial institution regulated by the FSA should not have made these mistakes unless there was some kind of mis-interpretation of the situation. Have you got proof of your correspondence? If so you can complain.

harryjuju

thanks guys! ill have to do some studying now. i do have proof of what i signed but that is in their favour. they have wrote on their system that 'it is not the customers fault- inexperienced staff error.'

i dont see how the conversation was misinterpretted, i think its just the girl wasnt particularly good on translating into english what i had just said!

do you agree though that they have left me over a barrell? if the compo was good enough then i would stay with them but as its bad i want to leave but cant because nobody else will sypathise with their mistake.

Aegis

harryjuju wrote: »

thanks guys! ill have to do some studying now. i do have proof of what i signed but that is in their favour. they have wrote on their system that 'it is not the customers fault- inexperienced staff error.'

i dont see how the conversation was misinterpretted, i think its just the girl wasnt particularly good on translating into english what i had just said!

do you agree though that they have left me over a barrell? if the compo was good enough then i would stay with them but as its bad i want to leave but cant because nobody else will sypathise with their mistake.

If you can, go and have a talk to the sales manager in the branch where this happened. Stay calm and explain the situation without getting emotional, and they will generally try to help. If it says on the system that the staff member was at fault, then they are perfectly able to rectify the situation with a bit of effort, so they should call up the relevant department and have the transaction reversed. In the mean time, don't move any of the funds out of the account the ISA was transferred into.

harryjuju

unfortunately i have tried that and the outcome has been that they will offer me this compensation as they cannot reinstate it. they did call their relevant department and submitted the paperwork mentioned previously, however it was their decision not to reinstate it as they said that hmrc will dispute why they have done this. from your previous post it looks like they were very wrong.

i understand that i will no worse off accepting the compo but i just feel that if they want to me to stay with them then they should try a little harder and take into consideration the amount of time i have spent at the bank and the stress of waiting a month to resolve this.

oldfella

i must add that the slip stated that i wished to 'transfer my funds from my isa upon maturity'

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what sort of ISA is it - a normal cash ISA doesnt mature

harryjuju

EXACTLY! it was a cash isa and the lady i complained to said exactly the same thing- that it doesnt mature as its cash. she totally agreed that the phrasing was ambiguous yet i am the one who has ended up worse off.