Hsbc just closed my business account with no notice - new bank recommendations

[Ribenery]

I am absolutely fuming. Got a letter through the post yesterday to say my business bank account had been closed with absolutely no notice. There is no email address or phone number to call. On a quick Google, it appears this is happening a lot with HSBC business customers at the moment. I had a look at the Ombudsman's website and it says I should be given 15 days notice to sort things out but they have not done that and all my money is now frozen in the account. Unfortunately, from reading all the stories, it appears as though this will take months to resolve and I'm unlikely to be able to touch my money till then despite having to pay employees/tax man etc.

I'm a premier account holder on the personal side but obviously after they have done this I'll want to close all my accounts with them (I darent say anything now because I will need to use my personal money to pay employees as I don't think it's fair to make them suffer for the bank's horror show) but this is it for me. I've had enough of their shitshow!

Does anyone have any recommendations for personal and business banking?

Reading with interest.

We've had a business account with HSBC for 40 years and have recently been through the threat of closure if certain forms were not filled in, threats continue despite returning three forms over six months.

I have no confidence they won't just shut it down and really need to be looking at an alternative.

Get as much money out as you can. If the amount you can transfer online is a fixed amount call and arrange a transfer that you pay a fee for. Better to get it out and argue for the refund of that fee rather than money being left behind.

just to finally update

so after getting an email saying I needed to fill in another form, I did that. It was exactly the same form as I did last time.

filled it all in and this time got a reply around 2 days later to say they needed more information

logged back in and found the reason they had rejected the form the first time

in one of the fields, it had automatically filled in my name. My parents gave me 2 middle names and my names and surname are quite long. let's assume my name is Emily Samantha Catherine Smithson. In the square it had put Emily Samantha C Smithson. I had assumed it had done this because the characters were too long as is often the case with my name.

well the form had been rejected because when they tried to match it to Companies House, the name on Companies House said Emily Samantha Catherine Smithson not Emily Samantha C Smithson.

So even though I hadn't even filled in that block, they had, this has been the reason all along that my account was frozen/closed down and I have been feeling sick to my stomach about the cash being trapped in there for months!

I am waiting for the final clearance, which they haven't given yet, but considering this was the only query on the entire form, i expect it will get solved quickly. Now why someone couldn't have called me last year to tell me this I don't know! Or at least pointed it out as an issue!

Glad you got to the bottom of it at last
Hopefully it will be sorted now but I would still change banks if I were you

so they gave me final clearance. I confirmed by email.

I got a letter in the post on the weekend saying that they still intend to close my account because I still haven't filled in the form. Despite filling in 2 forms since they last asked!

I have no idea what is going on but by the time they try and close it again, I will have transferred all the money out and will close it myself

it honestly is ridiculous - the left hand just doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing

Oh blimey Ribenery, that is ridiculous. Formal complaint to someone on high coming I think.

@Ribenery
Did your account get closed?
I am having a nightmare with my Business HSBC account - I missed the identity form as HSBC were (apparently) sending it to my old address. I missed all email communications because they were emailing an OLD email address and not my updated email address. Long and short of it HSBC closed my business account. After contacting them, to be fair, they did send me a Cheque with the monies in my business account (this is in the tens of thousands). I received that in Feb this year.
I then proceeded to try and bank that cheque in March (was on holiday in Feb) into my personal (premier) HSBC account which i've had for 30years. Obviously cheque is in my business name, so cannot bank it. Spent ages in branch and then on the phone going through my options. Decided I needed to open a new business account for transparency. Can't open with HSBC as am now banned from business banking with them for 7 years or something. Went across the road to Natwest to do this as have mortgages and personal account with Natwest. Natwest then advise me to not open a new bank account (as I plan to close my business this year) and instead contact HSBC to re-issue the cheque in my name which apparently they can do. After much back and forth with HSBC, they agreed to do this in April. Roll on to June still no cheque and I've received a letter to say they cannot approve the request!

Am literally tearing my hair out. Have just applied for a business account with Natwest. I now have an issue where I am off abroad again in 2 weeks and by the time I am back I will have missed the 6 month banking deadline on cheques. All a bloody mess.

Hope yours got resolved?

For anyone reading this DO NOT use HSBC business banking.

For anyone who may know re. cheques - is it possible to bank them after 6 months.?

Once I have cleared all of this up I plan to close my personal account with HSBC.

HDBC did this to us too. Now with Tide.