To be furious with HSBC

[Tomboytown]

So they decided to close my accounts.
They can't tell me why.
Despite being customer for 20 years, ex staff, high £ turnover, overdraft, but always within limit.
So I sent them a payment of £5000 to cover the overdraft and close the account, but because they put a stop on the account, the payment was rejected and is now floating around in cyber space and I am going around in circles to get it back.
My bank has tried to claim it back for me but they told them it did credit the account and given them the reference number so that's a dead end.
Aaarrrgghhhh!

When I worked for a major bank any complaints sent direct to the Chairman or CEO used to be prioritised due to the combined weight of managerial disapproval descending from on high on to the people at the bottom of the heap.

HSBC were the worst bank I have ever been with. Problem after problem and their 'customer service' is fucking awful. The final straw for me was when they failed to do anything about obvious fraud, fraud that I also reported to the police. HSBC said they held me responsible, did not tell me why and refused to even investigate. Thats when I closed the account.

It's bizarre
But also shut down the account so it's impossible for me to pay in

that's shocking....

Is this something banks do, just deciding to close accounts? I've never heard of it happening! How annoying not to be told why, too.

Ok and the account was definitely overdrawn? Did you get a closing statement at all?

Re the complaint - they need to accept a complaint over the phone. The complaint about the missing money will be a different complaint to the account closure. Be clear “I want to complain about the handling of this payment”, again they will have 8 weeks to investigate and issue a final response before you can approach the FOS if you are unhappy with the resolution offered.

Have you spoken to your bank again? I know you did initially but I would contact them again to check if the payment had been returned

Ironically, I’ve just seen a LinkedIn article where their COO has been banging on at a conference recently that ‘modern technology’ in banks is all smoke and mirrors, it’s completely unnecessary and what clients want, is simple, good quality, reliable service

If it’s any consolation, when they made me redundant, they wouldn’t even let me go back to my desk to collect my handbag. They said they would courier it to me

They are shit. They cancelled my card while I was on holiday (in the UK, nothing unexpected) because they had sent me a new one without warning. My card had 2 years left until the expiry date.
Their 'customer service' consisted of asking me what I had spent £3 on in Boots a month earlier. Of course I couldn't remember. I was left with no access to money miles from home.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to change banks.

HSBC are a bunch of cunts.

If you do get a reply about the closure it’ll be because it doesn’t fit with their ‘better banking policy’. Although I doubt most people working for them will have heard of their better banking policy let alone have any idea what it is. Most of the people you’ll deal with can’t tell you why they’ve decided to shut your account because they haven’t got a clue either.

Surprised they managed to shut the account with an overdraft. They couldn’t close mine until I’d paid off the overdraft. They just couldn’t tell me how to arrange that. A lovely and very helpful lady from Barclays sorted it in the end but that was only after 3 months of wrangling with HSBC.

Sensing: raising a SAR might not find the money. But it could shed some light on why her account has closed.

The account is actually still open, I can still login without my fob, just not get into messages. I've got an individual person on the case at my current bank.
Edwin- that's terrible, did they send the bag?
I was spending £80 in boots once and a random security check they wanted to know what the last large credit was- I had to stand there and say "my husbands life insurance payout"

Check out the thread in Freelancers to see what they have done to small businesses
We had a nightmare with them closing my account but it was mostly inconvenient- it’s actually put some people out of business

That's v interesting Hoppinggreen.
I remember HSBC chasing me to review the account and they asked bizarre questions, one about a payment I'd made to my brother. Maybe they think I'm money laundering.

Could well be, they’ve been spanked in the last by regulators for AML control failings.

f they have closed it because they are concerned about suspicious activity, they can’t tell you because it could constitute a tipping off offence

Do you have many dealings overseas OP? I’m finding that lots of companies that operate outside the U.K. are having lots of queries and having accounts frozen.

Bank worker here
They can close your account without consultation if you have made 6 vexatious complaints within a year. Have you done that?
Or if there has been serious fraud / money laundering proven on your account

Nothing overseas
No complaints
No money laundering

Just an insurance payout, and property sale.

PP is right. I'm close to a banks processes. Banks can close accounts without a reason of they believe you broke T&Cs or suspect ML. Also they can act on tip offs from other organisations like SOCA. They will have some reason for doing it. Are you laundering, being investigated by HMRC? Abusing account? Receiving large credits?

If they can't find this money they need to contact the banks technical/system support. It might be in one of their suspense accounts.

Sorry contradicted myself. I mean they dont have to give you the reason for closure.

Funnily enough I've just been dealing with HSBC who completely fouled up a POA account. However, the person I ended up speaking to was extremely helpful and apologetic and is sorting out some compensation.
Possibly because I started out complaining on Twitter, which very swiftly got me directed to customer services, and then I said that if they did not sort it out sharpish I'd be taking it up with the FO (as my issue was to do with a complaint which they said they'd address but hadn't).

They seem to be very bad at a lot of things, unfortunately. I hope you get to speak to someone tomorrow, Tomboy.

Edwin- that's terrible, did they send the bag?

I made my managing director who’d made the decision and was sat in the meeting, go back down 2 lifts (we were on floor 25, the trading floor where my bag was sat, level 3), collect my handbag and sparkly ballet shoes, walk the length of floor with said ballet shoes and handbag, and deliver them back to level 25 before I would leave.

I’m told the traders found this mighty amusing

Another thing. You said the sending bank gave you a reference. Is it a Faster Payment reference confirming your bank sent that payment?? (long digits) If so, give that to HSBC. They can also check that reference on HSBC system. It will provide the payment info including time, date, sending and remitting bank. It will prove that payment was sent under FPS and arrived at their bank so you aint blagging it.

Yes it's s faster payment id. I just gave them that today. They're not disputing that the payment got there, they could see it, it's just not calculated in my balance.
They can't see it going in and then out. It's like it's been erased.

I believe John Lewis Finance are part of the HSBC group Tomboy?
I'd def take the advice to use Twitter here to escalate your complaint. While FOS would certainly ensure more attention internally, it wont speed things up for you.

@Tomboytown sounds like a suspense account issue. The full bank account stop they had on the account has knocked it back somewhere so they definitely need to speak to their technical support guys.

Daft q but it definitely is showing as a debit on your sending bank account right? And that it was never credited back by them once received? So many customers miss this on their own account.

Also was there a separate 4 digit code given to you at all. This is commonly seen in rejections of faster payments.