In April I sent two electronic payments – my life savings – totalling £95,000 from my HSBC current account in the UK, direct into my ANZ bank personal account in New Zealand. I used the HSBC online banking service and understood each payment would incur a £4 bank charge. I was intending to send the payments in pounds sterling direct to my pounds sterling ANZ account. The money did not arrive and, after several days of worry, it emerged that HSBC had made two payments back into my UK account, but rather than £95,000 there was only £91,000.
I subsequently discovered the outgoing payment had failed to reach my ANZ account as it had been sent in NZ dollars and the account was not compatible. The HSBC payments website, I have since learned, automatically defaults to the local currency when you try to make a payment. Despite this, at no stage did HSBC contact me to advise me of what had happened. During discussions with the HSBC customer advocate I was told: “This happens to lots of our customers – you are not the first.” The bank told me the mistake is mine and there was nothing they could do.
I have been banking with HSBC for more than 20 years and feel very badly treated. TC, London
You should feel badly treated as, in effect, you have been charged around a 2% currency conversion (twice) as your money was first changed into New Zealand dollars then back again, even though this was never your intention.
In total, over 4% of your money has disappeared into HSBC’s coffers – a very nice bit of business for the bank, and a huge loss for you. The reported comment that this happens a lot suggests there is an issue. Had HSBC contacted you after the money failed to arrive, it could have substantially mitigated your losses, but staff apparently chose not to.
Before you got in touch, you contacted the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is looking into the matter. Rather than help you now, HSBC has told us it will let the ombudsman make its decision. When this happens – it could take a year – we will report the outcome. In our experience, it is always better to use the third-party currency firms when moving sums abroad.
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