HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece • Hacker News Board

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#131

Post by mjw1007 » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:40 PM UTC

hpcjoe wrote: post #77

fredley wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In no way should extra due diligence on the part of the bank cause this situation to arise. They've audited this guy twice, either they formally accuse him of laundering money and close his account, or they unfreeze his account. This is just terrible inefficiency, and hints at complete chaos behind the scenes. This is the fault of HSBC, not the regulation they've (fairly!) been subjected to.

While I agree that HSBC is at fault, to be blunt about it ... determining fault and pointing fingers doesn't pay the bills. Banks can and will screw you over, hard. I may one day write my own experience up as an object lesson and cautionary tale for those who might succumb to the sirens song of bank "services" and "products". The best advice is to consult an attorney right now. Yeah, it will cost you money. The 1 hou…

Going to a national newspaper sounds like a good idea.

But don't try the Telegraph for anything HSBC-related.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne/why-i-...

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#132

Post by joatmon-snoo » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:42 PM UTC

joering2 wrote: post #111

gcb0 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bank with them and will continue to do so for a while. years ago, they were the only bank to open an account with my history from another country. all other us banks had the same bullshit "you won't even have a credit card with us until you have credit history in the us, even though we have branches in the country you have history". then they were the only ones offering investments with no administration fee and wi…

What country you came from if i can ask? I hailed from Europe to USA in 2003. Got SSN, went to first Bank of America branch and opened account with $100 initial deposit. No problems at all. Credit Card was tricky - yes many banks will tell you "bad credit is better than none", but after 60 days of direct wire from my employer to the Bank, they gave me secured $500 Amex. That was enough to show them for the next 60 da…

http://www.corp-research.org/bank-of-america

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#133

Post by daemin » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:42 PM UTC

nh2 wrote: post #98

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.

UK banks seem to be the worst in the world. I studied in the UK, lots of horror stories to tell: # Name misspelled 4 times * Santander: They spelled my name wrong on the debit card, 4 times in a row, with a different misspelling each time. Each time I had to go to the branch and type the correct spelling into a keyboard. They still got it wrong the next time. The 5th card was correct. I was without a working card for…

Santander is a Spanish banking group.

Although yes, the big banks are never a single corporation or entity stretching across the globe. In each country they operate they set up a separate business, so technically you were dealing with the Santander UK company.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#134

Post by sireat » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:43 PM UTC

_Codemonkeyism wrote: post #56

Hear, hear "PayPal, thank you. Your support was fantastic. I only wish HSBC were more like you."

You know your bank is horrible when Paypal has the better support.

Over the years here on HN we have heard a number of Paypal horror stories but it seems Paypal is somewhat responsive.

Personally, I've had two lockdowns on my small time Paypal account(in 17 years) and in both cases I was able to resolve the matter within a few days. Both times involved faxing some information to them...

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#135

Post by mgiannopoulos » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:46 PM UTC

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…

Actually, the article worked (see update at the end). HSBC called him and "magically" the problem is gone.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#136

Post by sthen » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:47 PM UTC

edshiro wrote: post #65

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 trie…

FSCS is to give (limited) protection from a bank's bad investment/lending decisions. Tide operate using an emoney license which requires deposits to be held in a ring-fenced account and doesn't allow them to be lent/invested in that way. I'd be interested in other opinions but my understanding is that the risk FSCS protects against in the case of a bank can't happen under an emoney license anyway.

(FSCS doesn't protect you from the problem this article was about either, and that seems much more likely to happen than one of the large banks being allowed to fail..)

Their accounts are super easy to setup, if their fee structure fits how you work then it's probably worth having one even if it's "just in case" to keep your options open.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#137

Post by ENadyr » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:47 PM UTC

edshiro wrote: post #65

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 trie…

Have been considering Tide, as we are applying for an HSBC Business bank account currently gulp. As Prepay Technologies Ltd is used to store the deposits I believe small companies ARE eligible for compensation under FSCS should Tide/PrePay run into problems.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#138

Post by richardknop » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:51 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #60

woodylondon wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how do you pay your lawyer if your account is blocked? :)

Lawyers typically invoice once per month, by then this should be long over. And if not they're not monsters either, and should given the fact that they know exactly what the state of affairs is be more than happy to wait for a bit. Another reason to cultivate a relationship with a legal office long before you actually need them.

>> by then this should be long over

How do you know? This could drag on for months. And in the meantime, your money is frozen by the bank. Not a lot of lawyers will be happy to work for free in the hope you will get access to your money eventually to pay them.

And forget about not having money to hire a lawyer. You don't have money to pay salaries (or a salary if you are a one person company), bills, rent, mortgage. You have survival things like paying your rent so you don't end up on the street as top priority while your bank account is frozen.

I think you underestimate how expensive lawyers are and especially for small businesses they really can't afford them.

Which is why there needs to be strong regulation / legislature to make sure banks cannot just freeze your money because their buggy anti fraud system flags your account for some bogus reason.

At the very least they should be forced to allow you to withdraw some amount of money per month (2-3k) let's say while your account is in review, so you have money to pay your rent/gas/food and other basic cost of living expenses.

Apparently they can just freeze your account and your money is gone perhaps for months. That's frightening.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#139

Post by ksec » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:51 PM UTC

nh2 wrote: post #98

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.

UK banks seem to be the worst in the world. I studied in the UK, lots of horror stories to tell: # Name misspelled 4 times * Santander: They spelled my name wrong on the debit card, 4 times in a row, with a different misspelling each time. Each time I had to go to the branch and type the correct spelling into a keyboard. They still got it wrong the next time. The 5th card was correct. I was without a working card for…

Similar Experience as well. And the funny thing is, HSBC and Barclays are not that bad outside UK. It is as if all these are specific to UK only.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece

#140

Post by daemin » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 4:52 PM UTC

Twirrim wrote: post #71

bradleyankrom wrote: post #7

> Don’t bank with HSBC. After having similarly-frustrating things happen with my HSBC personal accounts over the years, I fully support this suggestion. They are awful. They take extreme steps (suspending accounts, rejecting payments, etc.) without contacting the customer; when you reach out to them, it's hours of being passed around before you reach the right person. If you reach a person at all.

Had HSBC screw over a co-worker. Someone, somehow, transferred money through his account. A fair sized amount, in and out within an hour. He reported it and they suspended his account immediately while they investigated, which is fine. What wasn't fine was it took them well over a month to investigate, in the mean time all of his money was locked up tight and he was unable to access it, pay rent, buy lunch etc (we en…

How can someone else other than the account holder transfer money out of that account? Based on my experience anyone can transfer money in to an account, but only the account holder or an authorised user can transfer it out.