HSBC have always had an odd place in my heart.

They started as an interesting local ethical bank called the Midland Bank and had a funky griffin as their logo.

I joined the bank 14 years ago but it seems to count for nothing.

To them, I'm just someone who goes overdrawn from time to time and they like to slap with charges on my account and pester me on the phone on 08007838422.

I keep getting calls at least once or twice a day from the number. They seem to not have a concept of "Don't call me during the day" or "I work from 8am-5pm so don't want to be discussing personal finance issues over the phone".

The slightly worrying thing is that they usually ask me for personal information, the usual protocol is for me to supply that information in an automated way. I could easily get myself a nice freephone number to call people from and say "I'm from HSBC" when there's nothing to prove I am or I'm not.

I have emailed HSBC complaints but they said I needed to go into my branch.

I dream of the day when I'll be able to claim my soul back from HSBC and move to another bank. An ethical bank who doesn't invest in the arms trade, oppressive governments, animal testing and generally leave the world worse off for them being in it. Not that HSBC are evil, please don't think that, they'd probably never be horribly unethical. At least... well... their staff don't know about it. I know because I asked.

One bright day I'll be able to move over to the co-op bank and my soul will be a little lighter for it.

One day, eh?