Hi Knittedmonkey, HSBC I think, seem actually to enjoy saying no and being generally unhelpful. Your problem would in essence appear to be similar to mine, I have tried every way to give them some lateral thought as to how to solve the 'mounting charges issue', the solution I came up with was a request for a moratorium on charges for an agreed period. I don't think the person I was corresponding with, understood what I meant by moratorium. This reflects in my opinion, on the quality of staff HSBC now employs, which would appear to be of pretty low calibre. In addition as you move on you will find that they will endlessly request financial reviews and have no record or claim to have no record of the last one you have completed. You can see that they are no longer a 'Local Bank', but a highly centralised and controlled operation, where sensitivity to the customer is non existent. In other words you are being used Kittedmonkey as a Cash Cow, to be milked for all you are worth:rolleyes:!. Probably the strongest option you have in this situation, is to claim your unfair charges back, provided the value is worth the effort. Happy hunting Carningli.

Hi, Thank you ALL for all your most helpful comments since my last post. In response to JM's query, I had presumed it would be prudent to review any information forthcoming from the Subject Access Request before sending the Letter Before Action?. If this is not necessary, I shall move on to the LBA stage now. With regard to HARDSHIP query, I am not eligible, but have taken steps to protect my wife's and my own interests by opening Parachute Accounts.

Hi Fellow Caggers, An update: Response received from HSBC after 6 working days to CAG template Preliminary Letter. Although I had also added some personal material fact to the letter, this was completely ignored and the HSBC letter was one of their standard template responses complete with leaflet " Putting your Finances in Order" letter signed by Retail General Manager Mr J Large although addressed to Director Retail Banking.. Clearly nobody read my letter in detail or took any notice of it's content or that leaflets were not required. (So much for their "trying to be helpful", should they not also be reported to Trading Standards for misleading information?. With regard to signatures HSBC always use facsimilie signatures, so I think I will resort to doing the same. So without any meaningful response I move on to Subject Access Request.

Hi Informed Searcher, Firstly thank you for having the guts to come here and tell the story as it actually is. Secondly this situation is no fault of either you or your wife. You are quite obviously a worthy citizen who has moral standards and you are not a "won't pay" but due to circumstances beyond your control a "can't pay", there is no dishonour in that. What you do confirm is the hypocrisy of HSBC and their attitude to people suffering financial distress. Coupled with the poor quality of staff they employ. The time has now come when you need to fight them, by outhinking them and their crude methods of recovery. It sounds to me that you have already suffered exhorbitant charges and maladminstration by cancelling all your DD's and SO's' with all the attendant iresponsibility of cancelling insurance arrangements and so on. (I bet they left payment deductions in place to pay themselves and levy further charges). Did they cancel your DD's and SO's without informing you first?. I suggest if you so wish, you go for them (charges) through this Forum, not only to recover charges, but to give yourself a breathing space until the test case is decided. Well done, head up keep battling, there's no need to answer phone calls tell them you will only deal by correspondence. Lastly you may wish to investigate a parachute account, but avoid an HSBC managed loan at all costs. Carningli

Hi Fellow Cagers, The preliminary letter has been sent to head office, addressed to the Director of Retail Banking HSBC..... I doubt if he will see it, however it may just catch the eye of someone with some authority in HSBC!!! One lesson I have learnt is check everything you receive from HSBC for accuracy. During this exercise I have found £50 added to my charges on statement over and above those on the relevant "Summary of Current Account Advance Charges and Interest" notice, letters promising refunds of charges in which the amounts stated are not honoured and charges made on loan accounts for the return of uneccessary instalment payments as payment already made. In a nutshell what a shambles.

Hello all, Progress is steady and now at point of submitting PRELIMINARY LETTER with details of claim, without 8% interest. I am using the advanced spreadsheet which is headed "UNLAWFUL CHARGES" is this correct or should these words be amended to "UNFAIR CHARGES"?.

Hi IIYAMA66 Fascinated you managed to get a reply from Jim Large. General Manager UK. Operations. To whom did you address your original letter, to elicit a reply from such a senior individual in HSBC?. I thought they were all in hiding!. Carningli

Hi Johnnymitch, Castlebest et Al, Thank you for your on going enquiry, I have been a little tied up business wise at month end, but am progressing well. I have to hand all the statements I require and have a good working copy of the advanced/complex spreadsheet which I am completing. (I am actually quite shocked at the level of fees I have paid out). I have also been reading up about the procedures and making copies of relevant information that may, be of use in the future. I have received a default notice from HSBC re my Flexi Loan, it would however appear to be flawed, as they were asking for redemption within 10 working days, I am keeping this up my sleeve. As they cancelled all my DDs and SOs, they of course sent me their usual letter saying that they could'nt pay the Flexi Loan instalment. To wrong foot them I have made arrangements to pay instalments from another bank, direct to the Flexi Loan account. With regard to the Overdraft, I believe this to be largely made up of charges applied, at the firms discretion to my disadvantage and therefore represents my money. Will keep you posted, with grateful thanks. Carningli.

Hi Johnnymitch and Castlebest. I owe you a big thank you for your interest. I hope I am conveying these thanks by the coprrect route. I will keep you all informed as to how this case progresses. The latest trick of HSBC has been to take all my business account credit and put it against my overdrawn Personal Account! ( Just as well I had already covered all payments due), I expect they were trying to trap me into another load of charges) on my business account, by leaving it empty, I must really have upset someone in HSBC. In the mean time case preparation continues.

Hi to all who read this. This is my first post, prompted by yet another day of hassle from HSBC. Some 6 yrs ago, I opened 3 accounts, Business, Joint and Personal. All had small overdraft facilities. Within the last 3 years the Business and Joint accounts always in credit had, with no reason given their facilities withdrawn also my wifes credit card which she had never used. My personal account has varied from £20,00 credit to £2,200 in debit, facility lmit £1,500. Latterly the limit has been exceeded fairly regularly. Inevitably charges and interest have been applied. I have sought meetings with Branch managers, been continually fobbed off, appointments made on bank holidays and on two occasions, people who stated they were the wrong people to see. I then decided on a letter only policy, my letters being passed on to Customer Service staff for reply. My questions are not answered and I am asked for duplicate information. All the time I am issued with threats. When the overdraft was cancelled on the joint account, I was forced to replace it with a Flexi Loan. Today went to check my SO and DD list on internet banking only to find that all my SOs and DDs had been cancelled by HSBC, without anyone having the decency to tell me!. I have not as yet taken any action regarding Interest and Charges, they must be considerable and I am using the Advanced Spreadsheet. Could any of your members advise me as to what I should now do?.