HSBC Managed Loan / Debt Management Companies

[Mr Donnelly]

I have a managed loan with HSBC. I am with a debt management company called Immediate Financial, who charge me £25 a month for their services. I have to send money to them by standing order on the first day of the month, which they forward to my creditors by cheque within 5 days of receiving it. HSBC insist on the money being paid into my current account with them, from which it is transferred by standing order into my managed loan on the 20th of the month. If it is paid earlier than this, it is not recognised as a 'contractual' payment but an additional one, and I am considered to have missed a payment. If the money isn't in my current account in time to pay the standing order, the standing order bounces and HSBC charge me £25. Can this be right? I never applied for the managed loan - it was a consolidation of a credit card debt, an overdraft on my current account and a professional studies loan. It was forced on me by HSBC when I was with a previous debt management company, the Debt Support Network, now closed down by the Office of Fair Trading.