HSBC - more unpleasant goings on

For those of us who live abroad, ISAs and bonds are not avaialble.

Santander hasn't been without troubles, though.

I don't know why anyone puts up with no interest current accounts anymore, I am with Santander originally Girobank and have been for many years and my current account earns me quite a few ££££'s each month in fact I transferred an old small ISA into my current acc as the rate was better and I don't have to faff around each year when the ISA rates drop like a stone to find a new one...

I think more is coming out at the moment, I was reading earlier this morning. It's tempting me to change banks. On the other hand, who knows what goes on elsewhere? Maybe the others simply haven't been caught yet. 2007 was very much the time when bankers thought they could get away with anything.

Tegan I phoned First Direct recently and asked them exactly the same. Why should I lend them my money for free, so they can then lend it to others for high interest? Asked ' who is the bank here- you or me? Told them I was going to take the money out and blow it on things I'd enjoy doing... I asked for my message to be passed on to Senior management, not sure if that was done.

I'd propose that all of us on GN phone our bank and complain about the pityful interest we are getting, or none! If 1000s of us phone in a matter of days- thereatening to take our money out, the penny might drop (!). Grrr.

It is all getting to be a muddled, tangled web at the top of this country.

The man in charge at the time was Stephen Green , who was made a Conservative Peer and then served as a minister, so I guess that means he's going to get away without any consequences.

I spoke to HSBC recently about the fact that I get absolutely nothing back from them even though I've been a loyal customer for most of my adult life and queried if they planned, at any time in the future, to pay me interest on my current account etc and the reply was that, no, they didn't plan to do so. I told them that, if that was the case I would have to switch to Santander or another bank that repaid my loyalty. This has pretty much made the decsion for me.

Soontobe - I agreed with you 100%. I can't believe that this is OK when poorer people have to resort to food banks and there is no escape from the bedroom tax.
Are we building up bigger problems for the future?

My question - why are our tax authorities not pursuing HSBC???

Probably because they are not as clever.

Why has only one individual been prosecuted? This would not happen to people accused of benefit fraud.

Until we are prepared to say that if you leave the country because you will not pay the tax you need to, that's OK, we will not stop these often incredibly wealthy people avoiding or evading the tax they should be paying. We also need to get rid of every single tax allowance that we can.