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HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

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Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#61

Post by czechdeveloper »

kelvin0 wrote: post #10
matheweis wrote: post #2

When people tell me they don't "get" Bitcoin, this is exactly the sort of thing I have been looking for to try to explain it. Yes, it has problems and is still maturing, but no one can inexplicably just off your bank account like this.

https://news.bitcoin.com/top-10-biggest-bitcoin-villains-dat... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox "Mt. Gox announced that approximately 850,000 bitcoins belonging to customers and the company were missing and likely stolen, an amount valued at more than $450 million at the time"

Your keys, your bitcoin. Not your keys, not your bitcoin. It's simple. https://youtu.be/dnC5mFaIW3Q

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#62

Post by benmmurphy »

this is the problem with these regulations. i think know your customer is a good idea and the banks should be collecting this information but they shouldn't be responsible for making the decision. this should be a legal process run by the state.

what you are seeing is what happens when due process is bypassed. if every bank follows the rules in a similar way and there is a good chance they do because they are acting in a way that is mandated by law then you can be effectively locked out of the banking system. you are being punished even though you have not been convicted of any crime by a court of law.

i don't know what the solution is because the current implementation is quite efficient. but it does mean more innocent people are going to get burned.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#63

Post by jlebrech »

joering2 wrote: post #48
jlebrech wrote: post #13

don't bank with someone who's been caught money laundering, as they'll treat all their customers like criminals.

I think its worse than that. There were gladly providing business to companies that ended up being criminal enterprises laundrying hundreds of millions - they knew and were helping along the way. So if the OP had millions of USD revenue he would have gotten top notch customer support from HSBC; since he doesn't...

they probably have a quota of "investigations" to fill. but obvious they won't investigate their big money customers.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#64

Post by djmobley »

maxehmookau wrote: post #46

UK banks are ridiculous and they're hastening their own demise to challenger banks with attitudes likes this. My bank (Barclays) suspended my account and blocked my cards after attempting to make a large payment. It was £2000 to the Student Loans Company. My account was a graduate account. All of the clever machine learning anti-fraud algorithms in the world couldn't figure that one out. Go figure.

Why would you make a voluntary payment to SLC (assuming it was voluntary as most repayments are through PAYE)?

That is quite an unusual thing to do.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#65

Post by edshiro »

This sucks. I've recently started contracting in the UK and opened a business bank account with HSBC. I was initially tempted by Tide (https://www.tide.co/), a new entrant with an attractive business banking product, but unfortunately they are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so I thought twice... Maybe I should still open an account with them just in case... Wonder if anyone here has tried Tide here?

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#66

Post by ruleabidinguser »

larsiusprime wrote: post #34
lushn wrote: post #19

I'm not entirely clear why the author felt it was a productive use of his time to write several thousand words on this. HSBC aren't likely to be swayed by such an article. They've been fined billions, they're probably not worried about being "called out". First of all: Why are you depending on only one bank account to run your business? It's very easy to set up two or more business bank accounts and use them both. Ju…

Warning others from making the same mistake is extremely valuable. Also please don't kick people when they're down. You probably wouldn't have gotten caught by this issue but I'm sure you have your own blind spots in other areas.

You will literally never see someone working at a successful business write something like this. Wonder why...

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#67

Post by ig1 »

You'll get the same treatment with the anti-fraud/kyc team at any bank. It's standard procedure to not disclose reasoning because it essentially helps fraudsters/criminals avoid checks.

There can also be legal restrictions on what they can tell you. For example if they think you're committing money laundering it can be a criminal offence ("tipping off") for them to tell you that why they're investigating you.

It might also not even be directly about your business, if for example one of your counter-parties (customer/supplier) is subject to criminal investigation it could result in you getting flagged up as a related party.

It sucks when it happens but unfortunately it's a reality at every bank.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#68

Post by woodylondon »

jacquesm wrote: post #55
woodylondon wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if you're in the US? where that maybe possible. In the UK this is not that simple. Not even sure how you would sue them, their T&C would cover this under AML / Knowing your customer legislation. The problem is the knee jerk reaction from the government on stopping the bank's bad practices without thinking what happens, in reality, day to day.

I'm in NL, and my bank disabling access to my account would cause them to be in the 'kantongerecht' tomorrow morning because of the immediate effects such an account closing would have. I'm thinking taxes and salaries having to be paid, indirect damages due to reputation and other immaterial affairs and direct damages because of my inability to pay employees which would surely cause them to leave the company due to b…

We should all move to Amsterdam :) Sounds much better!

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#70

Post by javiramos »

Does the UK have the equivalent of credit unions? I moved to a credit union about 5 years ago and it turned out to be a great decision (if you have simple banking needs). I know all the tellers at my local branch and if I have a serious issue, I can just talk directly to the CEO.
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