Recently applied for a new passport (British of course) paid the fees and awaited the final outcome.

The agreed fees were taken from my HSBC account on the day of the application however 3 days later and additional 20GBP was STOLEN from my bank, with no warning or application.

I contacted the HSBC in the UK to complain about the debit, but they were useless, they could not tell me who debited the account only that they suspected it could have been Siam Commercial Bank or the UK Passport Office!

How on earth can anyone just go in there and debit your account without compliance or prior notification?

And just to add insult to injury, the entire time spent on the phone to HSBC, (More than 1 hour in two calls, where 90% was listening to their Wow and Flutter Music) cost me probably over 50 quid!

What is to stop them debiting me again as often as they fancy?

Terrible that someone can just pop in and take a chunk of money without asking!

I understand that the fee for a new passport is actually debited by the passport office in the UK so would be debited in GBP.

Not sure how SCB would become involved, and in any case I would have thought they would have charged in THB

Where does SCB fit into the story if you were paying the passport office in sterling using a sterling, UK-based HSBC bank account?

The GBP 20 sounds like a standard charge for a SWIFT transfer. Have you wired any money out of the HSBC account to another country recently?

when calling the uk.for any reason,get yourself a CAT INTERNATIONAL CALLING CARD. 300bht for over 3hrs.on a land line.

at what passport office collects the fee.?

Yeap SCB is not involved...my last pp I paid for with my SCB credit card and its all debited in the UK in GBP......cant understand "they suspected" a bank can tell you exactly within 30 seconds by looking at the transaction where the money was credited to....even HSBC, i know i used to bank with them...

Being to think this is another one of Menzies hysterical diatribes again...

"How can yo stop HSBC debiting your account?"..... Change service provider

And just to add insult to injury, the entire time spent on the phone to HSBC, (More than 1 hour in two calls, where 90% was listening to their Wow and Flutter Music) cost me probably over 50 quid!

Use skype in future