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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 

#181

Post by cat199 »

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.

> I think part of the problem is banks don't make much money from the average account outside of fees

Umm.. how about 'using your money to fund interest earning loans'?

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#182

Post by JimDabell »

lucaspiller wrote: post #79
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.

I have a Nationwide credit card and typically have to phone them at least once a month as Verified by Visa blocks my account. It usually happens for companies I've made countless payments before to, last time it was Three when I tried to top up £10 on my phone. On the other hand it allows me to go to random countries I have never visited before, and make contactless transactions without issue...

Same for me, they have way too many false positives in their fraud detection when there should be quite obvious heuristics to whitelist some payments (e.g. regular payments to the same business that have been made for years). For instance, if I pay Bitbucket the same amount every month for years, their fraud detection algorithm should never suddenly decide that this month's payment is fraudulent.

Once Nationwide decided that because they stopped two (completely ordinary, regular) payments in a row due to a false positive, that they needed to stop every payment. And because I pay most of my bills on the same day, everything was stopped.

To add to the ridiculousness, they sent me paper letters through the post, one letter per transaction. So I found out about it via a stack of envelopes coming through my door all from the same company, all, saying the same thing, all on the same day. Meanwhile, their messaging centre on their website didn't say a thing, I didn't receive any email, nor any text message. What's the point in having a messaging centre if they aren't going to send messages through it?

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#183

Post by nesyt »

daemin wrote: post #121
Retric wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Banks already do that for business accounts. Actually depending on the type of account it could be much, much more than that. For reference I used to pay close to $10 / 30 days to have a business account open in Australia. Note that I said every 30 days, not every calendar month. This makes it slightly more expensive than you think.

>This makes it slightly more expensive than you think.

365.25 / 30 * $10 == $121.75

vs. $120.00 if it was per month. Slightly indeed.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#184

Post by scarmig »

appleiigs wrote: post #143
reeddavid wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It certainly can hurt your score. One small but real component is the average age of account.

Also, ratio of credit used to credit available is also a negative signal, which would increase when you close an account.

Those are somewhere between minor and middling factors. It's stupid we have to play the stupid credit score game, but a small decrease in interest rates can save you thousands when it comes to your mortgage.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#185

Post by cat199 »

willmacdonald wrote: post #105

I left HSBC and have been much happier with Bank Of Scotland small business account. I also get the feeling HSBC would like it if you were in debt, or had a loan. At least they would be making money from you!

> At least they would be making money from you!

Banks use deposits to fund loans to other customers.

If you are depositing money in a bank, they are automatically making money off of you.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#186

Post by carapace »

travmatt wrote: post #30
xroche wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Don’t bank with HSBC. Unless you are a drug cartel, of course.

Then you go into a special category, where you go from fighting to find a person to talk with, to having banks designed to more easily accommodate your dropoffs.

Oh yeah! I remember that. But it wasn't the banks, it was the boxes the cash was deposited in.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/outrageous-hsbc-se...

> Breuer admitted that drug dealers would sometimes come to HSBC's Mexican branches and "deposit hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, in a single day, into a single account, using boxes designed to fit the precise dimensions of the teller windows."

So lame:

> Though this was not stated explicitly, the government's rationale in not pursuing criminal prosecutions against the bank was apparently rooted in concerns that putting executives from a "systemically important institution" in jail for drug laundering would threaten the stability of the financial system.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#187

Post by roel_v »

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…

"Kantongerecht" hasn't existed since 2002. You go straight to the "rechtbank" nowadays.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#188

Post by tchaffee »

I have had bad experiences as a Barclays customer. Not as bad as what was described in this article, but things that would be unacceptable at even the worst American bank. I really get the feeling that banks in the UK only begrudgingly provide retail banking. And commercial banking for smaller businesses falls under that umbrella too. I don't have any hard evidence, but I would have to guess their real profits are in other banking sectors like investment banking, or with their bigger commercial accounts.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#190

Post by raugustinus »

cat199 wrote: post #181
Retric wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> I think part of the problem is banks don't make much money from the average account outside of fees Umm.. how about 'using your money to fund interest earning loans'?

And then fund more loans on those loans. Like fractional reserve banking.
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