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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 

#81

Post by pricechild »

djmobley wrote: post #64
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.

There's been a lot of advice shouted about that everyone should only make the minimum payments as it'll be cheaper when the debt is eventually written off - if you earn less than £X.

That only works if the rules stay the same.

I say it's a fair gamble that they won't and that many will wish they paid them off earlier.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#82

Post by k-mcgrady »

scandox wrote: post #76

> Then Apple failed. This was a strange one — it appears you actually need a valid payment card associated with your Apple account or you cannot download free apps or update existing ones. I've always found this to be an issue that makes using a MAC a non-starter for me. I observed when I first got one (cast off) and it really puts me off.

Can anyone verify if this is true? I know it was in the past but AFAIK when the App Store took off they removed this restriction allowing you to select 'none' as payment method and still download free apps (otherwise at the time a lot of iPod Touch customers - i.e. kids/teenagers - would not be able to have use their products). The 'none' option still exists so I don't see why you couldn't download free apps with that selected.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#83

Post by k-mcgrady »

javiramos wrote: post #70

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.

Don't know if they're the same as yours but yes, we have credit unions. I think they were much more popular a generation or two ago however. I still know some older family members who use them.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#84

Post by richardknop »

What a horror story. I also have a business bank account in UK and after reading this article I immediately went and paid myself a hefty dividend just in case something like this happened. I will try to keep balance in the business bank account low, just enough to pay corporation tax, VAT and salary.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#85

Post by tonyedgecombe »

javiramos wrote: post #70

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.

We have building societies but they don't really service business customers.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#86

Post by millstone »

jacquesm wrote: post #59
woodylondon wrote: post #12

I think this is a huge problem and one that is going to continue and get worse. How is it the banks were the ones at fault, but the customers are paying for it. They just hide behind AML / Knowing your customer and say talk to your MP. I was locked out of internet banking for my business account with Lloyds for over 3 months due to a technical fault in the way it was setup. Was paid compensation in the end, but alrea…

> The only way to solve in the short term is to spread the risk across many banks, and never keep your money in one place. This is always good advice, and when you reach the maximum amount for which an account is insured (100K or thereabouts) it is an absolute must. I have my funds spread over five accounts just in case and make sure you note the legal differences between savings accounts and current accounts, the la…

I think the limit was upped to $250K in the wake of the financial crisis.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#87

Post by zhte415 »

School-Cotton wrote: post #22
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.

So in the UK it's legal for banks to simply shut down your account and steal your money, and you have no recourse? Seems hard to believe. Apparently, from his profile, the guy you responded to is from the Netherlands.

Difference of shutting down and preventing access to funds. It is legal, based on small print, to shut down an account on the sending of a letter (proof of sending a letter) and place funds for all accounts (businesses likely to have multiple accounts, globally) in a nostro account for transfer, waiting for payment instruction, just-like-that. Quite ugly, but done. That's a bit different from OP's case, however.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#88

Post by butler14 »

I think the chap has been incredibly calm about the whole thing. I'd be in my local branch every day refusing to leave until they take the necessary steps to re-open the account.

This really struck a nerve with me, as I've had similarly infuriating experiences with Natwest (though never to the point of my account being suspended).

Passed from one team to another -- and even witnessing colleagues from different teams argue with each other, not realising that I wasn't properly on mute... I wish I had it recorded.

Opening and administrating a simple small business bank account has been the single most unnecessarily difficult and frustrating thing about starting my own business.

It's why I'm so passionate about someone FINALLY disrupting the circle jerk of the mainstream banking industry and the organisational, bureaucratic and regulatory clusterfuck that it has become.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#89

Post by tonyedgecombe »

Arathorn wrote: post #37

Does anyone have a datapoint on whether Barclays ever misbehaves like this for small business banking accounts?

I don't know if they do this but I had poor service from Barclays, bad enough that I moved to Santander. Unfortunately, they were worse than Barclays so I then moved to HSBC.

Interestingly they have been good so far, apart from closing my local branch.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#90

Post by TorKlingberg »

javiramos wrote: post #70

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.

There are "Building Societies". They are mostly like banks but tend to be more local.
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