Submitted by Sabina Hitchen on | 1 Comments
Twas the week before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except for the occasional Brooklyn-based, unavoidable, mouse...Now with that much unusual and uninterrupted time to work (on a Saturday no less) last weekend at in my home office where this story begins...
While paying my monthly Sabina/Red Branch PR work-related bills I received a strange email: my LinkedIn account needed to be updated. It appeared by debit card wasn't working. Hmmm...a warning bell went off in my head that something was up. That said, I filed it away in my head and decided to keep paying my bills. While processing an Internet expense and then one for my health insurance (shout out to Freelancers Union), I again came up against the same barrier: my account (whether credit or PayPal payment) wasn't going through. Warning bells turned to alarms. I always know where I stand as a business financially and this was definitely out of the ordinary. I quickly logged onto my HSBC online banking account and was met with even more panic-inducing news: my account was no longer available. "Perhaps the site is under maintenance", I told myself as I called customer service. "Perhaps they set up a fraud alert as I've been out of the country for the past few weeks and did a few payments from there." After getting my answer from a call center abroad, I realized that the truth was worse (and stranger) than what I imagined...
After being passed to various operators abroad who were clearly just reading a vague script to me, it became apparent that HSBC had unceremoniously and without clearly alerting me (no calls, no emails, I personally received no letter) had closed my business account. It seems that I, along with thousands of small business owners, have had their accounts closed, mainly because we do not do enough/any international business. Though HSBC claims they sent form letters about this out in September, I never received one. Nor did Huffington Post's Brett King (also author of Banking 2.0) who discovered that HSBC had closed his account the hard way: while trying to pay for a cab home after a business trip. For some reason, I bet we're not the only ones who discovered our account had been unceremoniously closed down simply because we tried to use it.
In some ways, my situation was a fortunate one: I had paid the people who work for me the week prior to this situation, so at least no "real people" were directly hurt by it, except for me. That's not to say this isn't a major hassle: bills had to be intercepted, accounts had to be updated, oh and wait, didn't I mention this part: all the money I had in HSBC is currently in limbo. It's "being mailed to me". That the same person who told me this at the call center also claimed they mailed a letter about the planned closing of my account to others including Brett and myself, and we still haven't seen that either.
Listen, I am not mad at HSBC for wanting to only serve those who work with more international accounts. I don't care if they only want to work with people who bring in $500k or more a year, I don't even care if they only want to serve people who dress as cats. The point is, it's not what you did as much as how you did it.
I urge you to read about the current HSBC small business fail. I've highlighted a few outlets below with great coverage of the ongoing situation:
Brett King's experience via his piece: When HSBC Closes Your Account Without Telling You
Shayndi Raice of the Wall Street Journal Talks: HSBC Cuts off Some Small Biz Clients
As for me? Well I'm moving on up to see what Chase Small Business Banking has to offer (it sounds mighty nice), after all, we're already using and loving it at Tin Shingle. I'm also removing all personal and professional accounts from HSBC - sure they still offer personal banking but my trust and respect for them as an entity no longer exists. After all, in business (and in life) how you do anything is how you do everything...
Final thoughts? Bah Humbug to you HSBC!
Comments
Brett King replied on Permalink
Sabina, Given the press that
Sabina,
Given the press that this is getting and the disruption, I'm still at a loss to understand:
A. Why HSBC would do this without giving more of an explanation,
B. Why HSBC would do this at this time of year,
C. Why they didn't have a better plan for handling the exit of businesses like yours and mine with less dramatics,
D. Why they have consistently failed to notify customers adequately, and
E. Why they aren't learning from the backlash
My guess is that this decision is one of urgency because they are cutting their losses before an event of even greater significance, such as a total retreat from the US market.
Brett King