If a cheque for £7,000 dropped through your letterbox from your bank, with no prior warning, you would have every right to be a bit skeptical about the validity of it.
However, for the last 10 months, that has been the case for thousands of HSBC, First Direct, M&S Bank and John Lewis Finance customers.
The first cheques, worth between £25 and £100, were sent out from October 2020 to March 2021 as goodwill gestures to borrowers who fell behind on repayments between 2010 and 2019 from the HSBC Group - which all four lenders fall under - in compensation for substandard service.
In May this year, Martin Lewis assured thousands of HSBC customers receiving cheque refunds worth up to £7,000 that they are genuine and should not be thrown away.
And now MoneySavingExpert.com has shared responses to a series of questions it recently put to HSBC to try and find out more details about the refunds as they have received loads of queries and feedback from concerned consumers.
You can read all the questions and full responses on MoneySavingExpert.com here, below are some of the key questions.
Why exactly are customers being compensated and refunded interest and charges?
HSBC said: "This review across HSBC and its brands relates to customers who were in arrears between 2010 and 2019 and identified that some did not receive a good customer experience from our financial distress teams. As part of this separate exercise we have pro-actively contacted all customers affected to let them know about instances where historically we could have managed their indebtedness better.
"Examples where redress has been sent to customers include cases where letters that were unclear or poorly-worded which are now considered to be dis-engaging, where greater forbearance could have been provided and where a customer could have benefitted from additional support at the time and where expressions of dissatisfaction may have been overlooked.
"Each case has been looked at individually and an appropriate level of redress decided upon based on different factors. We consider the redress to be fair compensation for the relevant affected customers.”
How has redress been calculated?
HSBC said: "The different factors include but are not limited to time spent in arrears, the value of the arrears, the products held, the journey or experience in their dealings with HSBC."
Is the redress scheme still ongoing?
HSBC said: "Yes. Our primary mailing is virtually complete with very low volumes being sent in the coming months. As we have said previously, we will also be issuing follow-ups where the first cheque hasn’t been cashed. This will be fully complete by the end of November."
You can sign up for the MoneySavingExpert.com weekly newsletter here.
Get the latest money saving and benefits news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our weekly Money newsletter here .
