I had a somewhat similar experience with Chase - account locked without notice, wouldn't tell me what was wrong, couldn't get paid by clients. The only way I was able to solve the problem was physically flying to the US and proving my identity (again) in person.
Fortunately my credit card was through a different bank so didn't lose access to third party services.
HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
271–280 of 287 posts
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#272Chase suspended my companies' account for largely the same reasons FYI. I highly recommend moving to a bank where you can have an actual personal relationship with your banker. I haven't used SVB but it can't be worse than the big banks.
I had a relationship with my Chase banker but my business account was still frozen without notice. To restore access I needed to physically fly to the US and prove my identity again.
To minimize this risk in future I opened accounts with multiple banks and split my transactions between them.
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#273Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Wait, they made you wait 2mo, using their account as your paycheck direct deposit, for a credit card with only $500 of approved credit, which you then have to use for another 2mo, just to have any decent credit with them? ..and you are praising them?! on most banks the offer letter will already give you a $500 credit.
non us-citizen on temporary visa, with non-existing credit. Felt it was fair at that time.
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
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...
This account has been making way too many unsubstantive and/or uncivil comments. Please stop.
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#275Earlier quoted context omitted.
500k as a down payment ? Yeah... that would come under rich . In that situation you either are rich enough to save that much AND/OR are rich enough to afford payments on a house where that is a sensible down payment rather than a transfer of equity from a sale.
Ya, to buy a small simple house. Rich is always relative.
I live in the Bay Area and just bought a house: 500k is not required. 500k in savings here is still rich - it ain’t THAT relative
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
Works only in some countries.
Can you give more details ?
You need to have a card associated with the account and can't remove it if you're in Czechia. Or if it is possible I was not able to find how to do it after a hour of googling. It's per country requirement.
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#277I 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…
> How is it the banks were the ones at fault, but the customers are paying for it. Market power. There are economies of scale in banks, so there are few banks which are huge and can generally afford to act shittily to their customers (unlike in competitive industries). For the record, I don't think breaking up the banks or capping bank size will fundamentally solve the problem either.
Rather regulation. Banks have been hit with multi-billion dollar fines because they conducted business with the wrong people. Closing "good" accounts is less risky than paying exorbitant amounts because you failed to do so.
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a company director, you have a legal responsibility to pay your bills, knowing you cannot (because your bank account is frozen) means technically you are in breach and trading insolvent which is an offence (criminal?) I wonder what companies house would say - how long before you have to tell them!
It's not insolvency. The bank account is still a company asset, even if slightly less liquid.
It can still mean insolvency. If your clients delay paying their bills you can also be forced to declare insolvency. Even if the clients will definitely pay and cannot be insolvent themselves (e.g. government).
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
Or they want to get rid of a business that doesn't borrow money... There is no money in banking services if they can't charge you extravagant fees. It's ironic :)
If you deposit money into a bank, they can lend out that money and earn interest. They don't need to charge you fees to make money from your deposits.
With current regulation they get punished for taking business deposits. Deposits from retail clients are "sticky", so can be realiably used for loans. Business deposits fluctuate so that the bank has to keep a large share as cash at negative interest rates.
Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece
#280Does anyone have a datapoint on whether Barclays ever misbehaves like this for small business banking accounts?
I had my business account frozen by Barclays for similar reasons but they responded quickly and had me up and running again quickly. Basically I had an international customer making cash payments directly into my account at Barclays branches in the UK (I think he used some kind of underground international payments system). After a few times I got locked out of my account. They tried telling me it was an IT error. Th…
> I now have multiple bank accounts and a currency broker that I also use like a bank.
Transferwise? Any experience with that? Their offering sounds interesting.