The other day I wrote an article about a letter that HFC bank was sending out to consumers. The letter appeared to be violating the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) Debt Collection guidelines.

In that article I reveled how HFC Bank, a proud part of HSBC was violating numerous sections of the Debt Collection guidance issued by the OFT. After calls to HFC from ourselves and reading what appeared in This is Money, no other conclusion can be made other than HFC Bank and HSBC feel they are clearly the superior party when it comes to compliance with debt collection guidelines.

It was nice to read the quote from the OFT about HFC Bank and HSBC making an end run around the appointed third party debt representative. “The OFT said it does not comment on individual cases before investigation. However it did state that, in accordance with its guidelines, any bank sending out such letters is partaking in a 'potentially unfair business practice'. It added that banks must deal with a customer's appointed debt manager and not contact them directly.”

Look, this isn’t rocket science here. The OFT debt collection guidelines are either government direction to provide clarity about the treatment consumers should receive when in debt collection or they aren’t. Apparently HFC Bank and HSBC both feel they can intentionally ignore the OFT.

A spokesman for the bank said: 'We still believe we have the right to contact our customers directly.' He added that the bank preferred to work with 'large and reputable' debt advice organisations, not smaller companies of which it has limited experience.

And that’s the whole point isn’t it, the bank does not have that right to do that. The consumer is free to choose who they want to represent them when they are in trouble and HFC Bank and HSBC should have no voice in who the company thinks they should go to. That’s like a car manufacturer tell you that you can only use their lawyers or solicitors to represent you against the manufacturer in case of a complaint as the result of a defect.

HFC Bank and HSBC you get the “You Suck” award for the day.

Labels: Debt Collection, HFC Bank, HSBC, OFT