hsbc unfair (very!) O/D charges ...AGAIN!!! ...help!

Amazing !!! We the British taxpayer bale out the Banks when they happen to go overdrawn (or melt-down) due their mis-handling of funds and that's OK ?? Scandalous. All Banks should be totally transparent and that includes their "fat-cat" advisors !!!

The user's comments about HSBC [hsbc unfair(very!)O/Dcharges..AGAIN!!..help] are not justified in my experience with the Bank. I joined the bank then the Midland in the late 50's. I have used all the facilities available and received exellant service throughout. Many people wait for a problem to happen then complain rather than talking to the bank who are always ready to give advice.

ok no need to say that twice say that twice! couldnt agree less, my cashflow usually, is good and its only because i'm waiting for owed money from companies like the hilton (do you think they can afford it??!?!?!)that i've slipped over my limit. why cant they (hsbc) just call me?..i would have got my partner to transfer some cash on the spot!!!!! £75 to go over by a £100 for ten days...FAIR?....dont think so my friend. this tax year will be a good one for me,though still only £12-14 K max....i'm not exactly swimming in it am i. ta for the reply though... si

No, I agree. It's outrageous. £75!! Talk about good customer service. It's a disgusting system that the banks use to make money and should be done away with once and for all.

Any body that does not keep an eye on their bank account nowadays with banks charging for anything they can get away with deserves to be "fined".

Having said that I got a refund from HSBC when they did the same to me two years ago when I pointed out that there was money in a related account that could have been used to transfer cash back to the CA.

We're not saying that we should not be charged a reasonable amount for breaking the rules but the banks apply grossly unfair charges for any minor breach.  However if they do something wrong they don't pay us for their mistakes. HSBC are actually a lot lower than LLoyds TSB who charged me £130 for going over my limit for 5 days!  This is the first bank charges I have ever received and it was only due to an unusually high credit card bill (which I clear every month).  Even the branch agreed the charges were unreasonable but head office have said I have to wait until the results of the bank charges court case.  Ridiculous - I don't understand why they can't treat each case individually and apply some common sense.  I am now closing my account after 10 years and was thinking of switching to HSBC but maybe I'll try another instead.

I went overdrawn by just under £14 with my Lloyds account after I bought a xmas present last month with the wrong card. I was overdrawn for 5 days (the length of time from the transaction taking place to me actually realising I'd used the wrong card after a letter arrived on my doormat notifying me I'd gone overdrawn). They wanted to charge me an unplanned overdraft charge of £15 for every month I was overdrawn plus a £6 a day fee.

Considering the letter dated 18th December took 5 days to arrive, that was gonna cost me £30 alone plus the £15 on top which made it £45. So for going overdrawn by under £15, they wanted to charge me 200% interest on it!

I know they've gotta make their money somehow but that is just ridiculous. However, as far as I am aware, my visit to my local branch 10 mins after receiving the letter sorted the problem out and the fees were withdrawn :)

Does anyone know how I can get out of this loop I’m in with HSBC
They have been hitting 150 pounds per month for the last 9 months plus other times I think I’d have more fun wiping my ass with a 20 pound note than give it to a bank but they say they cannot help because my Credit score with HSBC was poor but i have been paying there charges fine
I just find it hard when you ask the bank for help and they say just stop paying your bills
Makes me feel like saying you have XXXX of my tax money and I’m coming to pick up my fee from you for going over you O/D limit 3B plus %400 :)

Anyone who takes money without authorisation should expect at least to be charged for it!!! I think it says a lot about this country that people feel entitled to just dip into bank funds that they don;t have prior agreement on without charge!! Take some responsibilty people, get organised no one has control over your account except you. One phone call to get a temporary overdraft it's pretty easy. Besides isn;t it good manners to ask to borrow something before you take it. Sickened by the 'everyone owes me a favour attitude' that is prevalent in todays society especially amongst the young who have grown up in an environment of freely available credit! Take some responsibility for your own actions and stop blaming everyone else.

The problem is most banks and other companies don't reward loyal customers any more.  I have been advised by a friend to contact my bank and ask them for the details for the Financial Ombudsman.  They might then look at giving me some of my charges back - I guess its got to be worth a try.  If not I'll just have to wait till they allow the court case to go ahead - I don't see how the banks can win its just a question of how long the goverment will keep delaying it! I have also started helping people reclaim PPI and write off unfair credit agreements and some of the cases I have seen are completely shocking. I hope companies like theclaims-warehouse are very successful as I believe the banks have behaved unfairly for too long. It is about time they went back to old-fashioned banking - treating us as individuals and not just a way of making huge profits!

theclaims-warehouse can legally eliminate your debts employing specialist solicitors to challenge lenders who have issued unfair credit agreements. 

Anyone who takes money without authorisation should expect at least to be charged for it!!! I think it says a lot about this country that people feel entitled to just dip into bank funds that they don;t have prior agreement on without charge!! Take some responsibilty people, get organised no one has control over your account except you...

The Person who wrote this is probably a stuck up prick with loads of money. Its not mainly about managing your finances its just a piss take that amount they charge. When i accidently went overdrawn by 2 pounds i got a 25£ charge from hsbc rediculous. The thing is in the past ive never been allowed past £0 in my account if i go to draw money out but all of a sudden i was able to draw money out thinking i had cash because i never check my balance. i had a 35 min debate with the lady shrita on the phone saying this is unnacceptable. Ive not arranged a overdraft never been allowed past £0 in the past why now can i draw over i said. She replied sometimes the bank will let you overdrawn!!! I was like WTF how can they sometimes allow me over drawn its bullxxxx They mug us all off for money its 1 big F...ING scam to mug us off for money.

There are many cases i saw in m personal life who suffered from same condition. They have no other option except either file a case which takes too long time or stay quiet. We are a company that helps you out to come from such situation.

Let me just get this straight, what some of you are sying is that if i am bigger and stronger than you and i break into your home and you are not competent enough to defend yourself from my attack, then its perfectly ok for me to beat you up and steal your money because i warned u in the pub the friday before that this could happen ?

Obviously unlike some of you, some people have better things to do with their lives than sit and read small print, some people are not even intelligent enough to be able to understand what they are reading, but they do need a bank account. In your opinion this makes it ok for people to bully money out of them ? money that in alot of cases they dont have. If they dont have the funds in the bank to pay the very small amount of money that has been requested then tell the people who requested it that its not in the bank. Don't be a low life and pay the extra money for no other reason than to then use that as an excuse to steal money from people who don't know any better.

Do you think the bank would pay the unplanned overdraft if they wer not allowed to then use it as an excuse to extort money out of people. It's not like they even let you know what they have just done.
They obviously do it in a way so that you dont even notice what has happened until a week or watever later at which point they has some stupid clause they put together which means they can legally tell you, pay me this amount of money or else.

Since this thread has been going on for a good year and is one of the first things I found when I googled 'HSBC overdraft charges' I thought I'd add some information which might be helpful.

I too was recently utterly flabbergasted by an £100 overdraft charge because I didn't realise I was going beyond my overdraft limit while I was waiting for a cheque to go through.

I thought if you accidentally went over your overdraft limit the standard fee was £25 - so I was quite shocked and upset to find out £100 would be automatically charged for overdraft charges.

So I decided to find out exactly why the fee was so much.

It's worth looking at the HSBC overdraft charges and fees document which you can download here: https://www.hsbc.co.uk/1/PA_1_5_S5/content/uk/pdfs/en/90030_9_bankacctca...

According to this document, the charges apply each individual time you take out money/use your card once you have gone over your limit. The charges per item are then as follows:

Up tp £10: No charge
Up to £25: £10 per item
Over £25: £25 per item

Because I had been over the limit for a couple of days (in Christmas shopping period) - I had been charged a number of times every time I took money out or paid for something...and this quickly totted up to £100.

I must say, once I knew a breakdown of the charges it made me feel a little less upset - because I knew there's not much you can do about it apart from be a bit more careful next time you are nearing your limit. It'll definitely teach me to keep cash withdrawals to £10 if I go over my limit in the future - because you won't be charged for this.

With the recent supreme court hearing over, HSBC is pretty much allowed to charge what it likes and you probably won't be successful in getting a refund if their fees are clearly set out somewhere. So at least knowing what the charges are you might be able to avoid them in the future.

I hope this is helpful, and I empathise with everyone here who feel they have been unfairly charged after being such a loyal customer for so many years. There is at least some comfort in knowing many people are angry about unjust overdraft fees - but if the die-hard protesters couldn't win the case against the Supreme Court - there is little hope for the small man winning against the bank.

Merry Christmas everyone

hsbc is probably the worse bank for fines, charges etc. last tax yr they made £1800.00 from charges and fines, not including over draft interest. to be frank wish that I had never moved to them. everyone I speak to has the same problem with hsbc.

they are thieving swindlers that make money from the poor and struggling business , they need to be taught a lesson.

a typical move from hsbc. return a DD for 17.50. charge £25 for return, sending account over drawn over overdraft limit by £12.50, please note they take all return charges straight away from account.then send a letter asking for funds to be paid, followed buy another letter informing of charges. this went went on for 3 weeks costing me £175.00 for one month being over drawn by 12.50 at the start.. they are thieving baskets, its about time it was dealt with. most of them have not back bone and will never make any effort to sort or even help small business. i work 50- 60 hrs a week and often chase clients for many months for payment.

HSBC the worse bank ever

All i'll say is a bank isn't a charity!!!

Guidelines are set out and a facility provided. If you can't operate within that facility and get charged then ultimately that responsibility lies with you the individual..NOT the bank.

I've been charged for going over my overdraft a few times in the past and too have called the bank all the names under the sun as its easy to blame your own misgivings on somebody else, but ultimately the buck stops with you, and if you manage your finances properly, you suddenly see that you stop going over your OD as if by magic!!

A bank is also a business and has too make money end of.

Totally agree with you here.

I've been charged about £250 in overdraft fees during my time with HSBC, some of which were fair enough, but yes i agree with everyone who is saying that it is the AMOUNT they charge, not how you handle your money. They always take ages to send you a letter telling you that you are overdrawn and half the time the internet banking doesn't work.

Interesting that some claim they have got their money back, I guess is it really worth losing your custom for some unfair fees they have aplied...

happened to me as well!

i paid 350 pounds in 4 month for overdrafts of 400 pounds.
i am from austria, have accounts in swizerland, germany and belgium and never heard of a system alike the uk.
in every other country you get charged interest rates. if you exceed your overdraft limit you get charged higher interest rates. but not 25 gbp for each transaction over the limit.
this sums up to 50%-whatever amount of % interest rates which is nothing esle but to be called a criminal act.

I have changed and erased my hsbc account as well now. after my story my company is also thinking about withdrawing their company account from hsbc. out of principal and as i am the head of sales for the uk ;)).
hmm wonder if they hate us for not channeling 30 Mio. GBP throught their accounts any more.

anyway, thought hsbc is a great bank but got very disapointed.

HSBC- the worlds criminal bank

Really...not HSBC...dont do it

Is there anything I can do??
HSBC are ruining my life. I completely understand that any money borrowed from the bank without prior agreement ie: unauthorised overdrafts should carry a penalty charge but HSBC are charging me extremely high amounts for refusing to pay DD's if the funds in my account are insufficient to cover them.
These charges are causing me great hardship. I am unable to work therefore my only regular income is from Income support and DLA.
I've tried talking to the bank several times and explained the difficulties these charges are putting me in but they say there's nothing they can do to help me and more recently advised me to cancel my DD's.

In 2005, because of hefty bank charges due to unpaid DD I found myself about £400+ overdrawn £200+ of this was unauthorised.
The bank insisted I take out a consolidation loan to pay off my overdraft and the balance of my gold card which, although up to its limit of £2000, was in good standing as I'd never missed a payment even if sometimes it was just the minimum amount required.
I agreed to the loan even though I felt pressured, I'd got myself into this mess so it was down to me to sort it out and pay it back.
One of the DD's I have to pay each month is, the repayment of the consolidation loan, which I've been paying off at £50 a month for the last 5 years and I still owe nearly £500.

How are these charges at all fair and representative?

I check my account regularly online, today i find £168 charges for 2 days over my overdraft limit? My bank refuse to refuse my card when I go over, so unknowingly I didnt get paid before Christmas and I went £150 over my limit for two days..this incurred £125 informal overdraft fee, one direct debit returned so another £25, then (this really takes the biscuit..) £25 admin fee (what are the other fees for then?)and £22 interest.

This is complete daylight robbery? How can it be justified? Two days has cost me dearly, all because my employer 'forgot' to pay me. They refuse to cover my charges as its my problem I am overdrawn! Luckily I am now in credit (wont be ehrn they take the charge) so am leaving HSBC and their theiving ways behind!!!

when cheltenham & glocs were taken over many years ago, they closed my account as it had only a few pounds in it.They sent me a cheque and i mislaid it,recently i found it ,can i claim anything from it.
Graham

What if it turns out that there's been a contradiction between a balance checked at an ATM, and the balance as per internet banking. I have a £500 overdraft facility. On 25th October, the Natwest machine told me i was £213 overdrawn, so i took cash out believing i was ok; then i log in to my internet banking the next day which showed that in fact on 25th October i'd gone over the limit due to simultaneous direct debits. If the Natwest machine had showed the actual balance i'd never have taken money out. Has anyone experienced anything similar? How long will it take for Hsbc to tell me how much they're going to swipe- i keep checking every day