Household HSBC Watch

About HSBC RS and Retail Services

In 2004 we had thousands of reports which said www.hrsaccount.com was not accessable, thus customers could not pay their bill on line. Now, in April 2005, we are receiving hundreds of emails, letters, reports, forum postings and calls on the hotline asking about HSBC/RS on your credit reports. See Andrew Armishaw Needs to Explain hrsaccount.com

HSBC RS stands for HSBC Bank, retail services division. Formerly known as troubled and disgraced predatory lender Household International, the company was purchased by HSBC bank in October 2002 and the purchased was finalized in early 2003. HSBC is headquartered in London but is actually the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank Corporation. More about HSBC can be selected from this page.

...sued for predatory lending, racketeering, and more...

After being sued for predatory mortgage lending and attacting the attention of regulators across the nation, Household International turned to credit card processing as a source of revenue. Retail Services handles private label credit card accounts for over 60 merchants, many of whom are listed at the bottom of this page. Do you have an account with one of these merchants?

Customers report an entry on their credit report as HSBC/RS but the entry has no telephone number. Let's give you the numbers we have on file:
1-800-557-5871
1-800-365-6538
Corporate: 1-847-564-5000

We monitor trends for violations of Regulation Z and other possible illegal actions using your individual HSBC complaints and merchant complaint reports. Household International Watch - News Release, Best Buy Watch, DamageControls, HSBC Watch, and Household Watch is watchdog and consumer activist coalition. Our primary funding comes from our telephony websites because we encourage our visitors to discuss what you see and find here. Call your family and warn them about credit cards from merchants. Educate your children about home mortgages and always be aware of binding arbitration clauses. If your credit card issuer or mortgage company processes your payment as a 'late payment' and piles on additional fees report them today. Your family deserves better.

...same questionable business entity...

Why did we mention customer complaints from last month concerning hrsaccount and the inability to pay online? Because retail services is responsible for that too. See our letter to the FBI and OCC on this matter. Often incurring telephone payment fees, late fees, and interest on no interest accounts, you now have an entry on your credit report from the same questionable business entity, HSBC/RS. For a complete list of questionable practices please visit LegalServices. The link will open in a new window and they are one of our partners.

Remember that calling HSBC Retail Services does not protect your consumer rights. Write to them, and send your mail with delivery confirmation from the postal service. Their address is HSBC RS, PO Box 4144, Carol Stream, IL 60197-4144. This is our latest information of record, and if you have newer or supplemental information please contact us.

Joseph Hoff is the CEO of Retail Services. Write directly to Mr. Joseph Hoff at HSBC Finance Corporation, Retail Services Division, 2700 Sanders Road, Prospect Heights, IL 60070 . Write to him if you think his tactics are questionable. Write to regulators using the link in the upper corner of this webpage if you were hurt by his tactics, or the tactics of his employees.

...predators lower your credit score...

One final note for this overview: Retail Services reported our Best Buy card in a slightly different way to each of the three credit reporting agencies. HSBC-BestBu, HSBC-BeBuy, and HSBC-Best Buy. On a TrueCreditPro credit report it gave our mortgage officer the impression that they were three different accounts. Each had a different variation of the account number. One refrigerator for 1000 dollars had mushroomed into 9000 dollars of liability (3000 dollars per reported account) thanks to Household International and HSBC. In summary, make sure you are not turned down for credit due to this kind of credit reporting. Remember, as a predator it works to Household International and HSBC's advantage to lower your FICO score. Don't let it happen.

For more, including a detailed look at predatory lending and HSBC's acquisition of predatory lender Household International we refer you to our book titled "The History of Predatory Lending"