- Customers who opened HSBC’s one-year Isa say it is plagued with problems
- The Isa does not appear in online banking and the transferred cash does not appear
- The issue affects customers who opened an Isa after April 10. You are one of them? Email editor@thisismoney.co.uk
Customers who opened an HSBC Isa this year have been unable to see or access the cash they paid, This is Money can reveal.
This is Money understands the issue is affecting customers who opened HSBC one-year fixed rate Isas after April 10.
An HSBC customer told This is Money that a £61,000 transfer he authorized when opening Isa was taken from his HSBC accounts and sent to a mystery account he did not recognise.
Daniel Redmond* opened HSBC’s one-year Isa on April 15 and authorized HSBC to make a transfer of £20,000 from his HSBC current account and £41,000 from an existing Isa held at HSBC on the same day.
It’s a mystery: Customers who opened an HSBC one-year fixed Isa after the start of the tax year were left worried after not being able to see the cash they transferred.
Shortly before five in the afternoon on April 17, Daniel was notified that the money had left his accounts. However, the money did not appear in the new one-year Isa.
Daniel could see on his statements that it had instead been sent to an anonymous account with a sort code and account number he had never seen.
He called HSBC because it seemed suspicious that this had happened at the end of the working day and thought the unknown account details might indicate a scam.
He said: “HSBC were quite dismissive at first, but when I told them the amount they paid more attention and said they would look into it.”
Daniel had to wait 20 minutes on the phone while an HSBC agent investigated the account.
He said: ‘Finally, HSBC told me the problem was due to an IT issue and that I should wait a few days. They said the IT issue would affect everyone setting up a similar account.
‘They said that my Isa had actually been opened and that the sort code and account number belonged to my new Isa, but they did not notify me that the Isa had been set up and had no name attached to it, not even “HSBC” or “It’s a”.’
HSBC said: ‘Open accounts are visible internally and we can discuss accounts with customers in the usual way. The customer’s fixed rate cash Isa earns interest at the rate agreed at the time the customer took the product.
When the saver opened the account, they were told that it could take up to five days to formally open the account and that the transfer request would be part of that process.
He said: ‘The way I see it, it’s been six days without any access or oversight of my money.
‘I have banked with HSBC for over 15 years and kept my accounts with the same provider in the hope that making transfers would be easy and seamless.
‘I can’t see the one-year fixed rate account in my mobile app or online banking. I only discovered that the money I authorized for the Isa transfer had been withdrawn from my accounts when I looked at my statement and saw it had been sent to a random account I didn’t recognise.’
HSBC has not told you when you will be able to see or access your Isa.
He said: “They gave me the impression that they were not aware of this issue at all and even thanked me for notifying them about it.”
In limbo: A reader was unable to see the £61,000 she had transferred to HSBC’s one-year Isa – instead it was transferred to a seemingly random account she feared was fraudulent.
Other customers have reported on X, formerly Twitter, that they also cannot see new HSBC accounts they have opened.
One customer said: ‘I opened a fixed rate Isa last week and had £5,000 taken from my account to fund it. There is no sign of the account in my internet banking and HSBC’s chat/phone support has been useless. Even telling me so many things that you’re not supposed to be able to see.
While another said: I opened a [HSBC] fixed rate account earlier this week, but it doesn’t appear in either online banking or its iOS app.
HSBC said on
This is Money contacted HSBC asking it to investigate the whereabouts of the Redmond money.
An HSBC spokesperson said: “We are aware that some customers who have recently opened an Isa fixed account are unable to view their newly opened account online.” We are working hard to resolve this issue and apologize for any inconvenience caused. All accounts are opened in accordance with customer requests and the customer earns interest at the rate agreed at the time of opening this Isa.
‘Customers receive welcome packs and Isa statements confirming their account details by mail. These may take a couple of days to reach the customer.
HSBC has now fixed the issue, after This is Money intervened.
*Daniel Redmond is a pseudonym as the HSBC client asked not to be identified