sent my letter and now an enormous charge appears, help!

[circuit]

eek!

 

sent a claim for £220-ish only yesterday and today i see a charge of £125 is due to be applied on 21st march!

 

is there anything i can do at this stage - call, write again, or do i wait for a reply? there is absolutely no way i can afford for £125 to go out, it will certainly knock me over my overdraft limit yet again.

[BankFodder]

phone them and complain. tell them about the letter you sent and tell them that you will accelerate your court actio if this is their response. Confirm that in writing

[circuit]

thanks for the response.

 

the response from the guy on the phone was "it's up to the branch, we only ever refund if the charge is wrong". i had them put a note on the account that i complained.

 

if you have any ideas for points i should raise in the letter please let me know, i've got time to get it in the post today if i write it now!

[circuit]

that's basically what i said - they guy had no idea what i was talking about, there was no point in going into any detail, it was very much a 'computer says no' conversation.

[circuit]

sent today.....

 

 

Revision of claim amount: ACCOUNT NUMBER: xxx

 

I wrote to you yesterday requesting the refund of unlawful charges which you have levied from my account in the last six years.

 

Today I note that another £125 charge is to be applied at the end of March.

 

I made a complaint over the telephone today and I am writing to confirm my complaint. I believe this charge is unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations.

 

 

Revised claim amount

 

I previously requested a full refund of £222 plus overdraft interest. I now require either:

 

- your immediate intervention to cancel this new £125 charge (in which case, my claim amount remains at £222 plus overdraft interest)

OR

- £347 plus overdraft interest if you decide to allow the new £125 charge to be applied.

 

 

 

I must remind you that you have 14 days from the date of my original letter to accept unconditionally my request in principle and tell me when I will receive payment. The charge exaggerates a period of personal financial hardship which started around Christmas with the first over limit fee and gets worse and worse each month due to each new charge that is applied. As such I am very much ready to accelerate court action.

[circuit]

Response received from Mr Bowden.

 

 

 

Dear Miss xxx

 

Please accept my apology for the delay in responding to your e-message dated 28 February 2006.

 

I confirm that the overdraft review fees of GBP 125.00 incurred during charging period 29 January 2006 to 27 February 2006 were due to the following :

 

13 February 2006 - GBP 777.02 overdrawn

14 February 2006 - GBP 779.59 overdrawn

15 February 2006 - GBP 827.40 overdrawn

17 February 2006 - GBP 780.30 overdrawn

20 February 2006 - GBP 801.33 overdrawn

 

The charges have been applied correctly, therefore a refund is not applicable on this occasion.

 

Please note that we will only charge an overdraft review fee of GBP 25.00 on each occasion that you go overdrawn by more than GBP 10.00 or then further increase the overdrawn balance by more than GBP 10.00. A maximum of GBP 125.00 can be charged in any one charging period.

 

I trust this clarifies matters.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Mr M Bowden

Manager Customer Credit Services

[circuit]

My reply

 

FAO Mr Bowden

 

Thank you for your E-Message. I was not looking for a clarification of the charge; I understand what it is for. My complaint is that this charge is unlawful at Common Law, Statute and recent Consumer regulations as are the other £222 of punitive charges you have applied to my account in the last six years.

 

I await your response to my recorded delivery letters, sent last week. I hope you received them. If the response to my letters is not timely and/or satisfactory, I will begin court proceedings to reclaim this money that is legally mine. This will include your new £125 charge as I assume you do not wish to remove it.

[BankFodder]

Are you ready and prepared to go to court?

 

Send them a letter before acton 14 days

then the Glad Tidings

 

Start getting ready. Got a parachute? Get one.

[circuit]

Mr Bowden replied dated 6th March.

 

TOTALLY ignored my first letter asking for refund of charges.

 

TOTALLY ignored any legal challenges.

 

The only thing mentioned was the new charge of £125 and he justified it with the usual 'this is our policy blah blah'. Not even a sniff off the other £222.

 

1. Is there anything you recommend I say in my second letter to emphasise the fact that he basically chose which paragraphs to read and which to ignore?.

 

2. I plan to mention I am on JSA... so he is taking £125 of the £224 the law says I have to live on each month... is this wise, or could he use it against me in some way? (e.g. withdrawing the overdraft)

 

3. Would I be best off sending a CC to my own branch manager?

[circuit]

Oooh and a new e-message from him too... he's becoming my penpal.

 

Dear Miss XX

 

Thank you for your e-message dated 7 March 2006.

 

I do acknowledge your dissatisfaction.

 

However, I note that a letter was sent to you on 6 March 2006 advising that the charges have been applied correctly and a refund is not applicable.

 

If you wish to discuss this further, please call in or visit your local HSBC branch.

 

I trust this clarifies matters.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Mr M Bowden

Manager Customer Credit Services

[BankFodder]

Just get on to your next step

When they fnally get the Good News, then they can start to work out which paragraphs to ignore or not.

[diddled]

It is my opinion State Benefits are theoretically "protected" income.

 

If you were a bankrupt, your trustee in bankruptcy would have no claim on your benefits, as the benefit rates are set at the minimum amount of money the law says you need to live on.

 

When you get back in touch with the Bank I would emphasise that your Income is JSA and is clearly identifiable as such when it is credited to your account.

[circuit]

i'm too afraid they will take away my overdraft and card if i admit to being unemployed. think i will keep it simple.

[circuit]

finally got around to sending the letter before action today... recorded to my penpal mr bowden, and to my branch manager back home. the new £125 charge is due to be applied tomorrow and i have mentioned in the letter that this constitutes more than 50% of my monthly JSA. i didn't make a big deal - just mentioned it - so they are aware. i don't expect to get any kind of useful reply back so will start making preparations for the court claim. £347 is a lot of money for the time it'll take me to sort it out.

 

shame my co-op cashminder account has been so painfully slow to open... 6 weeks and counting at the moment, and i still have no account number or documents. i could really use the safety net of a second account, but have already postponed this letter by a week.

[Spiceskull]

Hey,

 

Good luck with this - it seems like everyone is cheering for you. To allay your fears over your JSA, is there any other way to receive it (such as a post office account or something?)

 

I don't know these things myself, but anything intermediate will allow time for the other things to be settled.

[circuit]

it'd be a hassle if they close the account before this co-op account is sorted - but i will wait and see - i could use it as a reason for the HSBC account to stay open actually, so it may work in my favour.

 

i also realised that if they withdraw my overdraft, i wouldn't really have much obligation to pay it back immediately since i am on JSA... i could legitimately make an offer of an extremely low monthly amount.

 

despite being on JSA i am a good customer. i also hold a credit card with them. i only went over my overdraft limit once while away and unable to check my balance before withdrawing cash. they hit me with fees which started me on the cycle of overdraft charges (hard to break the cycle, isn't it?).

[jules371]

I am absolutely transfixed by all this and wish you well! My first letter to HSBC has been acknowledged by them. They have promised to supply me with details as requested within the time frame of 40 days! So far, so good! Will keep you posted. from Jules of Sussex

[circuit]

7 days passed, 7 days to go.

forwarded the letter on to the following:

 

John.Bond@HSBC.co.uk - Director

XXXXX@HSBC.com - Customer Relations Manager

Customerrelations@HSBC.com - Customer Relations

Sarabrewer@HSBC.com - Unknown

 

thanks to another user for these addresses.

[circuit]

Dear Ms Circuit

 

Thank you for your e-mail. I will send your e-mail onto the relevant area

for action but would be very grateful if you could advise me who gave you

my personal e-mail address as this is not the correct route for this type

of e-mail.

 

Yours sincerely

XXXXX

 

i have removed her email address from the above post.

[Che]

You can get a post office account which gives you a cashcard and I think allows d.d's etc to be set up (not 100% sure tho) so the JSA can be paid into there. Try your PO or website for further info or speak to someone at the Job Centre who should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

Totally agree with the comment you wrote about the 'Overdraft Cycle' I'm currently in that and its a nightmare to get out of at the mo!

[alanfromderby]

You can get a post office account which gives you a cashcard and I think allows d.d's etc to be set up (not 100% sure tho) so the JSA can be paid into there. Try your PO or website for further info or speak to someone at the Job Centre who should be able to point you in the right direction.

 

Totally agree with the comment you wrote about the 'Overdraft Cycle' I'm currently in that and its a nightmare to get out of at the mo!

 

Post Office account does not allow DD's. I would say that the best bet would be a Nat West Step Account - this also allows free withdrawels from the Post Office.

[circuit]

thanks. applied for an alliance & leicester premier account (as a homemaker!) and was offered what seems to be a vanilla current account. so i have appealed but to be honest, it'll do, despite the visa electron card. i don't know if it does DDs yet but am investigating.

 

as an update: despite sending my second letter (letter before action) to m. bowden, my branch and four HSBC email addresses, i have had no response at all. the court claim is due to be filed on tuesday if i don't hear anything. i am getting a little nervous now.

[deliciosa]

The bloody Bowden guy is not an existing person. He is the madeup name for HSBC customer relations. And yes, he writes me too....

 

The 125 will be probably overdraft charge too. I have just started my claim and have a pending charge of £75...

[circuit]

received today from customerrelations@hsbc.com

 

Dear Ms XXXX

 

31 March 2006

 

Thank you for your recent email.

 

I am looking into the matters you have raised and will contact you with a full response as soon as I have completed my investigations.

 

I am formally obliged to advise you of the Bank’s complaint handling procedures that you can view by logging on to http://www.hsbc.co.uk and Contact Us, then 'How to Complain' which sets out the relevant details for you.

 

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact us. I am only sorry it has been necessary for you to do so.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Brenda Paul

Customer Relations Officer

 

i haven't sent a reply, is there any point?!

[circuit]

Reply:

 

Ms Paul

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

I must remind you that the claim is due to be filed with the small claims court on Monday for recovery of this money.

 

I appreciate you may be investigating but you did not specify a timeframe for these investigations.

 

Therefore, if I have not received a full refund by Monday I will begin the claim as stated in my letter.