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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 

#141

Post by sbov »

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...

Plausible deniability if they get their hand caught again? "We suspend thousands of accounts for suspicious behavior, a few are going to get through".

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#142

Post by kelvin0 »

czechdeveloper wrote: post #61
kelvin0 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

OK, so the link to that video is a 1 hour loop of a guy saying: "Your keys, your bitcoin. Not your keys, not your bitcoin". So my guess is you are making fun of the 'security' of that mantra being repeated in the video? Just making sure I got the 'joke' (please correct me if I err).

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#143

Post by appleiigs »

reeddavid wrote: post #129
bradleyankrom wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They offered competitive rates for online checking and savings accounts about a decade ago, which is what captured my attention. I moved all of my finances over to a credit union a few years ago, but have left my HSBC accounts open because closing them may negatively impact my credit (which is ludicrous). I have a combined two cents in my HSBC accounts; I move the pennies around every few months to avoid being shut d…

If you're talking about a checking or savings account, you can safely close it without it affecting your credit score. Closing a credit account could affect your score, but unless your checking account has a credit product attached (e.g. an overdraft protection line of credit) that gets reported to credit reporting agencies, it won't have any impact. You can use https://annualcreditreport.com once per year to get a c…

I doubt closing a credit account hurts your score. Even if it does, you'd be more credit worthy to a lender because you have less credit outstanding/available. And the credit score can improve later if other credit is operating normally.

Credit score is only one item they look at for large loan like a mortgage. Smaller loans like a car or credit cards are already easy to get.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#144

Post by isostatic »

daemin wrote: post #120
namelost wrote: post #14

Presumably HSBC objects to a for-profit business running a patreon & donations. I can see how from a bank's perspective that could look like something illegal is going on.

It could be the tax office, since getting money from Patreon (and also Kickstarter) counts as taxable income.

As a business with an accountant I would assume all applicable income and expenses are recorded correctly

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#145

Post by pebers »

Retric wrote: post #93
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…

I think part of the problem is banks don't make much money from the average account outside of fees. I would rather banks just charged say 20$ a month and had actual customer service instead of the mess big banks evolve into.

The mess the banks are in has very little to do with current accounts being a loss leader.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#146

Post by richardknop »

daemin wrote: post #140
Twirrim wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah this is quite strange. I know I can send my money to any account I want to. But from there it's not my money anymore, I can't send it further. Perhaps it was some social engineering hack.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#147

Post by sl4i6j3o4i98g »

daemin wrote: post #140
Twirrim wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There are many flows that permit direct debit, and that may not have the strongest authentication or protections.

If you want to test, post your bank details here!

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#148

Post by BeetleB »

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #27
jacquesm wrote: post #3

So, immediately get on the horn with your lawyer and have your lawyer on his letterhead send them a letter and if the response is not to your liking sue the bastards. In the meantime set up another account with another bank and make sure all invoices that are pending but not yet paid are paid into that account and not into the HSBC account. Then shift over all the monthly payments to the new account as funds appear.

Lawyers are expensive, and bank accounts have complicated T&Cs which basically say "We can do what we like, and fuck you." You'll spend a fortune paying someone to argue some or all of the agreement is unenforceable. I would suggest trying to get in contact with other businesses in the same boat. The UK doesn't have a formal class action suit mechanism, but there's nothing to stop you pooling your resources in a join…

>Lawyers are expensive, and bank accounts have complicated T&Cs which basically say "We can do what we like, and fuck you."

Dude - did you not notice that all it took was for him to post an online article? They didn't go to him with their T&Cs.

Lawyers are expensive for a lot of things, but often all it takes is an official letter from a lawyer. I don't know how expensive that can be, but as someone else pointed out, it's likely pennies compared to losing your whole business.

People often pay an affordable monthly rate to get limited legal services. They'll do basic stuff for free, but if it gets complicated you have to start paying. Something like this letter would have been covered.

A tip for you - it's natural for techies to "plan for the worst". Learned the hard way that in real life being optimistic can work out.

A friend once lived in an apartment building where his neighbor kept complaining about loud noise from his apartment (called the cops a few times). The cops always sided with my friend. However, when it came time to renew his lease, the landlord said "No" due to the large volume of complaints.

But things got worse - no one would rent to him. Apparently his name got put in some database as a bad tenant. He kept talking to his previous landlord to get his name off the list, and they did nothing. He became essentially homeless while earning six figures. He sent his wife and kid to live with her parents, while he stayed with a friend for a few months.

In the end, he went to the police, got the records of the incidents, all of which showed that the police found his neighbor to be unreasonable. He took those papers to the landlord and they finally fixed his record.

When he told me this, I asked if he talked to a lawyer.

"No man. Everyone told me they'd charge so much that it wouldn't be worth it."

The guy did not even call a lawyer to ask what they would charge! Trust me - the legal business is not as "profitable" as it once was. There are many lawyers out there who need the money and don't have regular clients. They'll be happy to provide services like writing threatening letters for a fee. How much could they charge? Googling around I'm seeing $150 to $500.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#149

Post by noir_lord »

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…

I have to pay for my linodes on the gf's credit card because HSBC randomly lock my card for suspicious payments.

That payment has gone on the same day of the month to the same place since 2009 and they still randomly do it. Last time was three days before Christmas.

HSBC are terrible.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#150

Post by appleiigs »

daemin wrote: post #140
Twirrim wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It was probably bank error. Then it took a month for the bank investigation unit to find the internal bank staff that made the error and get an explanation.

The best banks for consumers are the mid sized banks. They're big enough to have all the services, but not the bureaucracy.

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