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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 

#261

Post by jboles »

woodylondon wrote: post #170
richardknop wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 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.…

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.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#262

Post by shermozle »

"what it was really doing was checking I’m not a drug cartel or rogue nation."

If they decide you are a drug cartel or rogue nation, you will be upgraded to Most Favoured Customer status and assigned a personal account manager. If requested the dimensions for the aperture of teller windows will be provided so you can custom manufacture boxes to fit the maximum amount of dirty cash through them in the shortest time possible.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#264

Post by roel_v »

jacquesm wrote: post #196
roel_v wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Sure, but that's nitpicking over terminology. The Kantonrechter still exists, the processes still exist it is just that they are now a department in the larger courts. But that doesn't change anything about the essence here. Depending on what the situation really is in NL a lawyer might go for a 'kort geding'.

"Sure, but that's nitpicking over terminology. "

I thought that's what we're here for :)

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#265

Post by pjc50 »

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'?

Loaning out money at 1-2% isn't great either, once you've accounted for administration and defaults.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#266

Post by philjohn »

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.

Barclays are intensively hiring developers for their fraud detection system at the moment - I've been approached several times but from what I can gather when I pressed them on remuneration they're looking to pay peanuts (relative to the skills required).

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#268

Post by daemin »

nesyt wrote: post #183
daemin wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It ends up as an extra payment every 5 years or so.

Given that most paid services are invoiced by calendar month, this is somewhat unusual.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#269

Post by mprev »

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…

We have a Tide account, alongside a more conventional business bank account with a high street bank.

Tide is not without its issues. For example, there's no way to accept payment from a non-UK account (no IBAN, BIC, SWIFT). It's also tied to a single person's mobile phone (even log-in to the web banking requires that one person's phone), even though we're a limited company, making it somewhat awkward for book-keeping purposes.

The traditional banks are far from perfect but Tide is not right for every business just yet.

Re: HSBC is killing my business, piece by piece 

#270

Post by Retric »

WalterBright wrote: post #240
Retric wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Joint accounts are also insured at 250k per person per bank and count separately from individual accounts. So a couple can have 3 accounts 2x 250k + 500k in a joint account at the same bank.

Even if it's insured, you may not have access to the funds until the government sorts it out. Meanwhile, you've still got bills to pay.

Banks fail regularly the FDIC has a lot of practic dealing with this. Generally the assets are sold off and most of the same branches are open the next day under a new name. Checks are processed using the old account etc.

It's possible for things to take significantly longer than that, but your quickly talking about lightning strike odds.

However, I would definitely use a separate institution for investment accounts which would worse case let you sell off some stock.

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