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Long distance charges to UK bank

TRAcy2022
I'm a participant level 2
I'm a participant level 2

I recently called HSBC UK from Canada using the phone number the bank provides to those outside of the country. I was held in a cue and the call was 67 minutes long. I never realized that I was being billed by Fido for this call. $100. I called Fido and the representative said there is nothing he can do.  I will bring this to the attention of HSBC but doubt they will help either. Any ideas of what else I can do? $100 is a lot.

5 REPLIES 5

Cawtau
Senior MVP Senior MVP
Senior MVP

Hello TRAcy2022,

 

  Welcome to the community!

 

  Sorry to hear there was a misunderstanding with using that UK phone number to contact the bank. Unless specifically specified as International toll-free , the number provided for calls from outside the country are generally regular domestic numbers. For example, Fido's contact from abroad number is a Montreal number. Dialling that number directly from any line outside of Canada would be considered International long-distance.

 

  If the company or businesses are willing to accept charges for the calls, people would have to call their number collect or reverse charge. The business would then accept the charges prior to the call connecting.

 

  With the previous example of Fido's from abroad contact number, I had mentioned that directly calling that number would be considered International long-distance for any provider outside of Canada. However, I believe Fido would accept the charges if a reverse charge or collect call to that number would be made.

 

  That said, using your Fido line to make the call (from outside of Canada) would be considered roaming and likely incur Fido Roam charges.

 

  I understand you used your Fido phone to call that UK phone number. Alas, it's not possible to make collect calls using post-paid services. I believe the option might be available with pre-paid services. Though you would need to confirm that with customer service if you have pre-paid services. In order to call that UK phone number collect, you would otherwise need to use a land-line to make the call.

 

   Unfortunately, if you dialled that phone number directly from your Fido phone, it would have been considered an International long-distance call to the UK.

 

  I also understand you are contacting the bank. They may be willing to retroactively pay for the calls, but you would likely need to provide documentation of the call charges.

 

  I further understand this is a difficult time and receiving such a bill even more distressing. If you're unable to make full payment on the bill, you might consider trying to arrange a payment schedule. To make an arrangement, you'll need to contact the credit operations department. It should also be mentioned that any arrangement would be at the discretion of the credit operations team.

 

Hope this helps 😀

 

Cheers

 

 


TRAcy2022
I'm a participant level 2
I'm a participant level 2

Thank you for your explanation and guidance.

I feel very lucky today as HSBC UK apologized for the inconvenience and gave me 100 GBP in compensation.  

Hello again,

 

  Glad you hear you were able to get your matter sorted with the bank 😀

 

Cheers


KAPABLE-K
MVP MVP
MVP

Hello @TRAcy2022,

 

Welcome to the community!

 

At this point, the only thing you can do is reach out to the bank and find out if that number is actually an international toll-free number if it is you can contact Fido and verify what happened that made it trigger charges.

 



TRAcy2022
I'm a participant level 2
I'm a participant level 2

Thank you for the suggestion. I will try.