HSBC Graduate Overdraft - no longer interest-free!

maniac886

I have now been told that that come November my entire overdraft will be charged at 18.8% EAR and at the moment £1000 out of the £1500 is interest free only.

HSBC's service is absolutely shocking to say the least.

I have registered a complaint to the financial ombudsman and I urge everyone who is effected by this to do so even if you are considering changing banks!

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/contact/index.html

scottishlass

The third letter they sent me dated the 17th but received the 22nd says that the letter dated June 2008 was right and my account would no longer be a Graduate Account as of the 19th July states that all Graduate accounts in 2006 were for two years only. I know for fact that I was never told this when I transferred from a student to a graduate as otherwise I would have gone for a different bank...I'm still waiting for a response to my complaint but since the FO is now involved they have up to 8 weeks to respond. Grrrrr

maniac886

scottishlass wrote: »

The third letter they sent me dated the 17th but received the 22nd says that the letter dated June 2008 was right and my account would no longer be a Graduate Account as of the 19th July states that all Graduate accounts in 2006 were for two years only. I know for fact that I was never told this when I transferred from a student to a graduate as otherwise I would have gone for a different bank...I'm still waiting for a response to my complaint but since the FO is now involved they have up to 8 weeks to respond. Grrrrr

This is what I am confused about. I graduated in 07 so surely the overdraft should be removed in 09?

Crabman

scottishlass wrote: »

The third letter they sent me dated the 17th but received the 22nd says that the letter dated June 2008 was right and my account would no longer be a Graduate Account as of the 19th July states that all Graduate accounts in 2006 were for two years only. I know for fact that I was never told this when I transferred from a student to a graduate as otherwise I would have gone for a different bank...I'm still waiting for a response to my complaint but since the FO is now involved they have up to 8 weeks to respond. Grrrrr

They have 8 weeks anyway before you can ask the FOS to take a look.

Last summer HSBC tried (unsuccessfully) to coerce graduating students onto a non-interest-free overdraft but when their tactics hit facebook and subsequently the press, they made a hasty retreat.

I wonder whether they've transferred you over anyway because they have to inform you about changes to your account.

Maniac - when I joined as a student the promise was that the interest-free element of the overdraft would decrease by £500 each year following graduation so that sounds about right

maniac886

Crabman wrote: »

They have 8 weeks anyway before you can ask the FOS to take a look.

Last summer HSBC tried (unsuccessfully) to coerce graduating students onto a non-interest-free overdraft but when their tactics hit facebook and subsequently the press, they made a hasty retreat.

I wonder whether they've transferred you over anyway because they have to inform you about changes to your account.

Maniac - when I joined as a student the promise was that the interest-free element of the overdraft would decrease by £500 each year following graduation so that sounds about right

Don't think HSBC's promises are worth much nowdays!:rolleyes:

jsouthee

There's no better way to write your first post then as a rant, HSBC have drawn me to this board to release some steam!

It's comforting to see other people are ranting about the poor service and treatment HSBC are giving their graduate customers. I too have received the confusing letters including the most recent from Chris Pitt yesterday. I graduated two years ago so am in a similar situation.

I completely accept (with anger) that HSBC are within their right to change our terms and conditions with the aformentioned grace period but they must expect the public backlash from its affected customers. I however find it wrong that they automatically changed student accounts into a graduate account without making it clear that they were tightening their strings around our already stretched accounts.

I have spoken to them on the phone and tried to get them to restore the original deal i signed up to of the three year interest free overdraft that stepped down £500 a year but know it will be to no avail. I will persist as i have great satisfaction in ranting on the phone to the line managers.

After being with HSBC for 11years i will now be changing to a bank that really does 'understand local culture'...Its schoolboy knoweledge that you must respect your customer base because without them you're nothing.

Is this Alliance and Leicester account the way forwards?

Mac_Sami

jsouthee wrote: »

There's no better way to write your first post then as a rant, HSBC have drawn me to this board to release some steam!

It's comforting to see other people are ranting about the poor service and treatment HSBC are giving their graduate customers. I too have received the confusing letters including the most recent from Chris Pitt yesterday. I graduated two years ago so am in a similar situation.

I completely accept (with anger) that HSBC are within their right to change our terms and conditions with the aformentioned grace period but they must expect the public backlash from its affected customers. I however find it wrong that they automatically changed student accounts into a graduate account without making it clear that they were tightening their strings around our already stretched accounts.

I have spoken to them on the phone and tried to get them to restore the original deal i signed up to of the three year interest free overdraft that stepped down £500 a year but know it will be to no avail. I will persist as i have great satisfaction in ranting on the phone to the line managers.

After being with HSBC for 11years i will now be changing to a bank that really does 'understand local culture'...Its schoolboy knoweledge that you must respect your customer base because without them you're nothing.

Is this Alliance and Leicester account the way forwards?

The A&L account seems to be the way forward. It's worth applying for, anyway. Plus you get £100 out of it by getting them to switch your direct debits + SO's. And another £50 if you go through Quidco.

All in all, £150 for the hassle, I'd say that's worth my time.

jaxkesa

I'm in the same position. I originally posted about it here: http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=987091&page=2

Anyway...I got in contact with my local branch and received a letter at the start of July from the Sales and Service Officer saying that she would amend my graduation date so I would get another year of graduate banking.

Hooray I thought, until yesterday I got the 'Sorry' letter dated 5 days previously saying that as of 3 days ago, my overdraft would disappear.

I checked my online banking and it is now just a standard bank account and I've had an extra debit interest charge go out on the overdraft!

How can they get away with misleading their customers like this? I want to change to an RBS graduate account but im afraid that I wont be able to as I have a graduate loan.

dansylvester

Im in the same situation in that mine was due to go down to £500 as of last week but dissapeared all together. I have still not had any letters from HSBC telling me this, it was only that i notice on internet banking my account had changed from graduate a/c to just bank a/c and my statement had been sent out halfway through the month.

I have the funds to clear the overdraft in a seperate account, which I have now done, and am currently in the process of switching to abbey, who offered me either £1000 interest free OD or 8% credit interest in the first year, and once i advised them i wanted to transfer a credit card and a savings account over also, bent over backwards to help me.

jimbow25

I've been through these confusing letters in the last couple of weeks as well- I thought it was just my account they were dicking around with, but interesting to see everyone else has had the same trouble.

• I had the long rambling letter saying my overdraft was staying for another year, and also the one saying it was closing.
• I then rang the phone banking to ask what was going on and the phone adviser said that as I've only had 2 year graduate banking it shouldn't be expiring yet- she couldn't explain where the latter letter had come from and so I should just disregard it.
• Then I had Chris Pitt's letter saying sorry but the "overdraft at an end" letter was the right one, but they'd give me another 4 months interest free. It may be a letter of apology but it's only confused me more by contradicting the phone call. The letter says "sorry" but it's basically "sorry but we won't give you a good deal".

What I particularly hate is that after a page of apologies it then goes on to say

I would also like to re-emphasise that we have not changed our policy on interest-free overdraft entitlements in 2008. Since 3 July 2006 the HSBC Graduate Service has provided new Graduate Service customers with a 2 year interest free overdraft entitlement of up to £1,500 in year 1 and £1,000 in year 2 after graduation. This has been reflected in our Graduate Service brochures, on our website and in our communications with final year students since July 2006

Unfortunately I can't find the correspondence from when my account changed to a graduate account so I don't know if this is what they promised back then or not. Did anyone else move to a graduate account in 2006? Do they know whether this is right?

I assumed the above quoted paragraph was written in response to my phone call but I guess it's just a standard paragraph on all these letters.

As I've used my overdraft a lot less in the last few months, and also I've already squeezed an extra year out of the facility by not having done a 4 year course and graduated in 05, not 06 as I originally intended to, I'm not as peeved as I might have been- just irritated by the confusing messages. I will happily close my account in disgust though- after 6 years it seems petty to pull the rung from under my feet, in my case, when I've made an effort to get my account back in the black.

Has this been in the press yet? They normally like stories like this.