Me V HSBC

[Hasselhoof]

Hi All

 

I'll start with a quick summery.

 

I've had an HSBC account for many (15+) years. I currently have a case stayed in court against HSBC and have had a payout from them in regards to another claim.

 

I have opened another account with another bank, which is running fine, no overdraft, no charges.

 

My accounts(2 of them) with HSBC are both overdrawn, by a total of about £350 combined and I'm claiming, so far £1328 charges plus interest dating back to Jan last year.

 

My current problem.

 

As both my HSBC accounts are now inactive HSBC is demanding I pay off the overdraft in full, I can't afford to do this, and as the overdraft is completely made up of their charges I'm not very inclined to do this.

 

What I want to know is can I stop them demanding the money, and defaulting and affecting my credit rating as I can't pay this and can I get the stay removed to continue my case through the courts. The court in question is Norwich and the stay was granted on 7th August 2007.

 

Thanks in advance

[hopeless1234]

I am in a similar situation and I have a hearing on 3rd June. I applied to the court to have stay lifted using form N244 (I was not charged a fee) on the grounds of 1) the Human Rights Act (HRA)(Right to a hearing within a reasonable time) and 2) Hardship grounds, on the basis that HSBC were reclaiming my overdraft and were continuing to charge me interest, on an amount that in the majority consisted of overdraft charges.

 

Was your claim stayed indefinately, or until a specific date. Mine was stayed until 31 March and this might be why I was granted a hearing however the HRA and the hardship case should stilll apply regardless?

 

Also, the OFT/Financial Ombudsman service as part of the waiver terms, agreed that the banks must deal with hardship cases.

 

Anyway, I'll dig out the wording that I used and I will post onto the system - there are also some excellent far more detailed specimen applications on this site.

 

Good luck!

[Castlebest]

There is nothing they can legally do to recover any debt unless they take you to court and as you have claims there already this is exactly what you want too .

 

Your accounts are in dispute so they should not be processing data about you and informing the credit reference agencies of these matters, if they are they are in breach of the banking code.

 

If you are getting telephone harassment have a read of this thread

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/bank-templates-library/37006-harassment-telephone-response-letter.html

 

pete

[Hasselhoof]

The Stay reads thus

 

IT IS ORDERED THAT

 

1. Save as appears in this order, this action be stayed pending the final decision (being judgement in the action or the final appellate court, whichever is the latter) in the test case between the Office of Fair Trading v Abby National Bank plc and others ('the test case') or further order of the court.

 

 

The rest is waffle apart from

 

5. Either party may apply to vary or discharge this order, provided that any application is made in accordance with part 23 of the Civil Procedure Rules and made on 21 days notice.

[Castlebest]

So your claim is stayed and HSBC are allowed to carry on adding charges and interest to your redundant bank account HOWEVER to actually recover what they no doubt see as a debt they will have to take you to court and as soon as they do that they run into you stayed claim .

 

I am in exactly the same situation and in fact they have given up writing to me now heres my thread all the info is there but I warn you now there is a lot of rubbish there too from memory you need to look from about post #350 onwards.

 

http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/hsbc-bank/85633-castlebest-ii-return-claims.html

 

If you have any queries just ask :grin:

 

pete

[johnnymitch]

Hi Hasselhoof, welcome to the forum......

 

In addition to the excellent advice from pete and hopeless you could try sending them this:

 

Re: Account in Dispute

 

 

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXX

 

Dear Sirs

 

Re: Account in Dispute

 

I am writing to clarify that I am currently in the process of requesting a refund of bank charges unlawfully made to my account.

 

I note from your latest correspondence that you are proposing to issue me with a Default Notice on this account - I need to make you fully aware that I am disputing the sum owed and, as such, you must refrain from any further action until this dispute is fully resolved.

 

If you do not stop this default action and proceed by making any adverse comments on my credit reference files, I shall be forced to take legal action against you under the Data Protection Act 1998.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

 

,

That lays it on the line for them...............

Edited May 14, 2008 by johnnymitch
tidying up font.........

[Hasselhoof]

Cheers guys

 

Any advice on getting the stay removed so i can finish the job and finally get shot of HSBC?

[johnnymitch]

Afraid not hasselhoof, there are thousands of claims stayed by the courts all over the country - they're just not moving until the judgement is finalised - or at least until the next stage, which I think is on 23 May, by which time the banks are supposed to respond.........

 

But if your claim is in the system , the interest is building up nicely..... difficult to get 8% anywhere these days........

Edited May 16, 2008 by johnnymitch
Afterthought........

[Hasselhoof]

Got a strange letter from DG solicitors today, I'll quote the whole thing

 

Dear Sir

 

Re: Yourself -v- HSBC Bank Plc

Claim number ********

 

We act for HSBC Bank Plc in relation to the above detailed claim that you have issued.

 

In this respect, we are pleased to note that settlement has been agreed direct with our client and that settlement funds have now been paid to you.

 

If you have not notified the Court, we shall be pleased if you will write to the Court, quoting your claim number, to confirm that the matter has been settled.

 

Whilst writing, in relation to conclusion of the matter, we shall be pleased if you sign and return the enclosed copy of this letter to us for our records.

 

Yours faithfully

 

DG SOLICITORS

 

 

I confirm that agreed settlement funds have been received from the defendant and that my County Court claim is concluded.

 

Signed.................................... Dated.................

Claimant

 

 

Just to clear up, I have not had any contact from HSBC or DG Solicitors since the stay was granted last year... I have not had an agreement from them. The only thing I agreed to was to pay off my overdraft at £25 a month, but after the advice I got here I have stopped that before it started.

 

I think DG heard I entered into an agreement to pay off the overdraft and assumed that I had agreed a settlement... lol

 

I have drafted this response.

 

Dear Mr Newbold

 

Re : Myself-v- HSBC Bank Plc

Claim number : ********

 

Thank you for your letter dated 28th May and I'm very pleased to note that your client has agreed to pay my claim. I am unaware of any settlement offer by your client and no monies have been paid into my account. Perhaps you could give me further information.

 

You may wish to know that the current amount of my claim is £882.58 (which includes statutory interest up and till today)

 

I look forward to your reply and your advice as to when I will receive the monies. Once I have received payment I will be happy to inform the court that the case is settled.

 

Yours sincerely

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[Hasselhoof]

Hi Guys

 

Now the 16th June and still no response from DG, will keep you all informed, though I think this will just disappear and be ignored...

[johnnymitch]

Hi hasselhoof,

 

I think you're right...... this will disappear into DGs 'too difficult ' tray...

but the interest is still building nicely.......

[Hasselhoof]

Hi Guys, Just had a call from the delightful HSBC telling me that I haven't paid any money into my account, and that if i didn't do so they might close the account. I told them I had no intention of paying any money in, at any time as more than the amount of the debt is currently contested in court, and if they closed it, referd me to a credit refrence agency or sold the debt to a collection agency I would take them to court again, the guy on the phone got argumentitive with me and kept butting in, i don't think he enjoyed the conversation, i did

 

I assume I was right in what I said?

[johnnymitch]

You were absolutely right, hasselhoof - and they know it! Well done for standing your ground..... you want them to take you to court, and they won't go down that road...

 

If they do pass this to a DCS then it will have to be passed back again as an account which is in dispute. I always think 'they can't be that stupid' - then they go and prove me wrong.........

Thanks for the update.

[Castlebest]

Also have a read of Bank Fodder's new sticky at the top of the forum, it has a lot of great info on defaults added to your files after your account was put into dispute

 

pete

[Hasselhoof]

Hi Guys

 

Just after a little advice, but I'll put in a little background first.

 

I work in a shop, so can't answer my mobile phone whenever it rings, sometimes i can, sometimes not.

 

On Monday, just before lunch HSBC phones me (got their number programmed into my phone so I know when they phone) but I can't answer it, they phone again in the evening and inform me that my account it delinquent as it has had no activity in the last 30 days (I moved all my banking to another bank as any money I paid into HSBC was swallowed by the overdraft that i'm contesting) I politly explained to the lady from HSBC that I was contesting it, and my case was in court and stayed, I explained the whole situation to her and gave dates that it started etc (just over a year ago) and I then explained that I wouldn't be using the account in any way, shape or form anyway, and that HSBC couln't do anything to enforce it. She was polite and helpful and said she would put some notes on the account to explain this. I also asked them to stop phoneing me as I frequently can't answer at work and I have nothing to talk to them about anyway as it is all in court. I thought this was the end of the matter...

 

On Tuesday I got another call from HSBC on my mobile while I was at work, i couldn't answer, then a second that I did answer, but after about 3 seconds of silence it went dead... then a third call that i did answer and this time got a guy from HSBC who wanted to talk about my other HSBC account... I was a bit annoyed as this made 5 calls in about 24 hours and I thought I had sorted this all on Monday. So i gave him an abridged version of the information as I didn't have all the details with me at work, and finially explained to him that i thought 5 calls in 24 hours was excessive and if I received any more calls in the near future I would make a complaint for harrasment to the financial services ombudsman, and was very clear on this.

 

On Wednesday, at work I received calls... the first i couldn't answer, the next 2 went dead and the fourth i received at home and I talked to a man. I explained to him that this was the nineth call from HSBC in about 48 hours. He wanted to talk about the account i talked about on Monday. so, politly, i explained to him that I had already explained all of this, and that 9 calls in just over 48 hours was excessive and i considered it as harrasment and would be making a complaint to the financial services ombudsman.

 

The advice I'm after is, one was i correct? and who do I complain to? straight to the FSO or somewhere else first?

 

Thanks

[johnnymitch]

Hi hasselhoof - not a problem - send them this one - recorded delivery :

 

Harassment by telephone - response letter

Your Street

Town

City

Postcode

DATE HERE

Company Name

Road

Town

City / County

Postcode

 

Re: Harassment by telephone

 

 

ACCOUNT NUMBER: XXXXXXX

 

Dear Sirs

 

I am writing in relation to the quantity and frequency of telephone calls that I have received from your company, which I deem to be personally harassing.

 

I have verbally requested that these stop, but I am still receiving calls. (Delete if necessary)

 

I now require all further correspondence from your company to be made in writing only.

 

I am of the view that your continued harassment of me by telephone puts you in breach of Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970, and the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

 

If you continue to harass me by telephone, you will also be in breach of the Communications Act (2003) s.127 and I will report you to OFCOM, Trading Standards and The Office of Fair Trading, meaning that you will be liable to a substantial fine.

 

Be advised that any further telephone calls from your company will be recorded. (**Even if you don‘t yet have recording equipment!!**)

 

 

Yours faithfully,

 

[NAME HERE]

Meanwhile - if you know it's them - don't answer ........ :grin:

This may also help :

 

http://www.financevictims.co.uk/complain/how-to-complain.htm Courtesy of Freaky leaky

Edited July 31, 2008 by johnnymitch

[Hasselhoof]

2 more calls today... well had enough of this now

[jowalshy]

I did this post on another thread and thought I would repeat it here.

 

 

I noticed that someone had posted about a possible solution to your phonecalls on another thread. They suggested (and if you use online banking) to delete your phone numbers from their records. Whether this works I do not know personally, but it might be worth a try.

[johnnymitch]

Hi hasselhoof ,I've just noticed that pete (Castlebest) gave you the Harassment letter link way back on 14 May 08 - did you send the letter to HSBC then .......?

If so, and they're continuing to ignore it -either try jo's solution - which works if you're banking online - or report them to OfCOM et al . They can be severely fined for this sort of practice - but you need proof that you've warned them - hence the 'Recorded Delivery ' letter.

[Hasselhoof]

And another one today...

 

Now been into my branch with a copy of the letter (thanks johnnymitch) and made a formal complaint and gave them the letter, getting a receipt

 

Hopefully this will stop it.... we shall see...

[johnnymitch]

If it doesn't ( but remember you'll have to give them a bit of leeway to act on it ) there's always this one......

 

FAQ

I hope this works! What if they don't listen to it though?

Answer : Then you log all of the calls and report them to the police, get a crime number and write to the FSA

[Hasselhoof]

Now i get a threatening letter from HSBC... time to make a second complaint in 2 days

[johnnymitch]

Good Morning Hasselhoof,

 

What are they threatening you with ? Excommunication ? 20 Lashes? - or something more serious like taking you to court....... Which is what you want and what they won't do .........

[Hasselhoof]

They are threatening withdrawal of banking facilities, enforcement of any security and credit reference

[Castlebest]

Withdrawal of banking facilities.

Oh dear they are gong to stop you using an account you don't use anymore

 

Enforcement of any security and credit reference

Your claim is at court stage, until they resolve your complaint they are not allowed to do anything to your credit file (but they will)

 

Pete