This report came to us from a family with perfect credit, very good income, money in the bank, investments in CD’s, and control over the board of directors in the homeowner’s association. I was going to publish it with all other complaints. After careful thought, I am publishing this report as an open letter to HSBC. Here is the report:
“We had no dealings with HSBC but determined to give them a try since they are supposed to be a world class international bank. While we were done opening the CD accounts, they offered to refinance our home at a no point no fee loan program designed for preferred customers. I asked the loan officer about the conditions for the approval as we have a fairly new condo. Among the normal FICO score and documented income/asset, he claimed that the only other condition is the property’s appraised value needs to meet 80% Loan to value ratio. We paid $425 application fee and since then, it has been non-stop problems.
First, they wanted us to sign a conditional loan approval letter, acknowledging one of the pending requirements is the loan to value ratio has to be less than 60%, not the agreed upon 80%. I called their processors repeatedly, leaving numerous voice mails and e-mails pointing out their mistake but no one bothered to return the calls for 1 week. I finally got hold of the supervisor; she made the amendment on the spot and promised to fax the revised approval letter to me immediately. I made sure that immediate to her meant now as it is a public fax machine. I ended up standing in front of the fax machine for over 3 hours and the fax never came. When I called back, they wouldn’t pick up the calls. Next day, they sent me an e-mail saying that they faxed the letter but the fax machine had no record of such transmittal. It took another 3 days before I got the revised letter.
Our credit score and qualification is impeccable. Our FICO score was over 800. We have documented income that is 7 times the mortgage payment. We have enough money in our HSBC CDs to pay up the loan if we want to. After 2 more weeks of processing, they claimed that my place is not warrantable since the HOA has not been turned over to the home owners. In fact, the HOA was turned over 2 years ago and we have majority control of the board. Numerous homeowners got their refinance through other lenders while mine is stuck. HSBC refused to honor our loan agreement or refund my application fee. I had to call the manger of the bank as well as the manager of their loan department; they finally said they’ll appeal for an exception since we are their valuable customer.
After numerous calls and waiting for another 2 weeks, they came back stating that the loan was approved but we need to pay 1/2 point for it. I didn’t really want to do business with them at that point but I was beyond furious so I ended up calling up their division directors and higher level management, creating as much trouble as I can. After another week of turmoil, they agreed to waive the 1/2 point and finance the loan per our original contract. In the meantime, Bank of America who is our existing mortgage holder offers us a much better deal with no hassles. We decided to ditch HSBC. In doing so, we forfeited the application fee but it is still much better than dealing with a bad company which has substandard business practice and inferior customer service.
I’ve learnt my lessons with HSBC. When the CDs are mature, Im going to close all of them and move the money back to the American Banks.”
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