HSBC imprisons customer for her overdraft

The crux of this situation was the unlawful imprisonment and for that, I agree that HSBC should be penalised and thus the writing off of the £2,070 overdraft and all associated charges is their penalty. Job done! Irrespective of the article suggesting that if Miss Lewis had claimed for damages relating to her imprisonment and harassment, she would have been awarded a £1,500 payment, I would still cause the Bank to pay out such compensation. Again, this is a penalty that should be applied, because this should not have happened and MUST NOT happen in the future. I do my utmost to explain to customers that borrowing by way of an overdraft is not cost effective and I'm amazed at the comments from those who have an overdraft of tens of thousand of Pounds or even anything above £5,000, as I cannot see any justification in such a level for this type of facility. It's different if you're on a salary that each month will allow the facility to fully fluctuate to credit and the limit is used fleetingly, since that way, if you borrow say £25,000 for three days a month and then lower sums at perhaps between £2,000 and £8,000 from time-to-time each month, the cost of the overdraft will not be as high as if the limit didn't budge from the higher level. This stands to reason. I am similarly stunned by those customers whose stance is, 'I've always had it and used it' (many of whom do not return the account to credit between one payday and the next, so they're always in a solid debit position) and they therefore consider it their given right to retain it, even in a changing financial climate and when their income has revised/reduced. This is simply another line of credit they cannot afford to repay (that's why I end up looking after the account!) and my role incorporates explaining rationally to them, why I'm trying to wean them off of the overdraft at anything between 10%pa and 18%pa, to get them onto a structured repayment basis via a loan at lower rates....and they still don't get it. My opinion is that the customer is king, but there are times when the king needs to listen to their advisors who know better (I don't wish to sound arrogant, honestly!) and thus when I can resolve their financial problem and I want to, I'm surprised that one or two wish to bite the hand that can save them....go figure? 'THIRDMAN': Its easy to reduce your overdraft by £10-£25pm. All you do is use less of it. I accept that you appreciate you are not charged on the value of the overdraft, but by the amount you've borrowed within that limit, so use less every month and after 12 months, get your Bank to reduce the overall limit at you annual review, say from £10,000 to £9,700. The main thing, is that Bank systems apply a credit search footprint when they put the application to amend the limit (up or down) through and so if you wished for a reducton each month, it will leave so many against you, that it will infer an incorrect scenario to any other lender. Therefore it is appropriate that your temperament and strong budgeting allows for an annual reduction and in the meantime, your better budgeting causes a reduced reliance upon the overdraft. 'FORTITUDE 24': Bank's don't borrow at Base Rate, so it's the wrong guide for you to use/state. Mainly the borrowing is against customers credit balances or LIBOR, but overall, all financial institutions must now maintain certain liquidity per Basel III. 'SLUDGEGUTS': I'm afraid that your stance regarding Bank statements is not as labour intensive as you may have initially thought and have conveyed. All that happens is that your statements are produced weekly for you - as requested - and yes, the Bank bears the cost of the paper, envelope and the mailing, but if you asked for them to 'remove adverts' (by this, I take it you mean no marketing material?), then those statements are produced without going via that element of the process being included and it all remains fully automated. No staff involved there. Sorry to dispel this for you....

In my misspent youth I found myself overdrawn & ended up paying all sorts of daft fees - £20 for this letter plus so much for each transaction carried out over the past month (despite the fact that I wasn't overdrawn for any of those transactions) etc. I simply changed my ways. Sick and tired of the constant charges, I l;ived on value bread and beans until I could live within my means. Mind you, I got my own back on the bank, I asked for a weekly statement and for all adverts to be removed (the statement process is automated including folding and putting into envelopes, as is the addition of adverts but to remove adverts requires a member of staff to open the envelope, remove the advert and put the statement back into a new envelope - must have cost them a fortune over the years.

Isnt base rate at 0.5%. My bank used to charge around 8%pa for arranged overdraft when base was around 5% as a priviledged customer. Now I pay a higher fee to remain a priviledged customer but my overdraft rate is 13.94%pa. I do not understand when people say interest rates are quite low. Yes they are for the bank to borrow from us but if you borrow from them on anything the rates are quite high. At one time Standard Variable Rate of the banks on mortgages used to be the same as BOE base rate so it should be 0.5%. Those days are gone. The SVR now can be anything from 3.5% to 4.5%. All that has happened is with Quantitative Easing (QE), the banks pay around 0.5% to borrow but charge us extortionate rates of interest.