DH in California said: “Here are three different bad experiences with the Best Buy credit card, serviced by HSBC Retail Services:
1. I made a purchase at Best Buy with a promotional “same-as-cash” three-month no-interest plan. This plan was due to expire on a Friday. I attempted to make the payment online the day before (Thursday) at 1:20 pm PT, and discovered that I my payment would not be processed until Monday unless I paid a $15 “rush payment fee”. Apparently the cut-off time to make a next-business-day payment was 4 p.m. Eastern, just 20 minutes before I tried to make the payment. THIS FEE IS UNIQUE TO HSBC as far as I am aware. NO OTHER CREDIT CARD (including American Express, Discover, Chase, Citi, Wells Fargo, Capital One, Target, GE Money) charges such a fee for making a payment the EVENING BEFORE it is due. Bank of America allows same day credit card payments if you have a checking account with them. NO OTHER STORE (including Target, JC Penney, Mervyns, Home Depot, Ikea, Zales) that I am aware of does not allow you to make an in-store payment on its credit card the SAME DAY it is due. Only Best Buy (and I assume any other store whose credit is serviced by HSBC) does not allow you to make an in-store payment on ANY day. I talked to three levels of customer service (the third called herself the “sole manager on duty” and refused to refer me to any other person to satisfy me) and no one would either waive the fee, or extend the promotional period by a few days in order that the payment could be made on time. No one would tell me how I could make a payment which is not due until tomorrow without paying this ridiculous feed. Basically, I feel I was extorted $15 in order to avoid about $35 in interest fees. And this “customer service manager” was willing to lose me as a customer over a $15 fee that NO OTHER BANK charges for the same service, as she did not object to me closing the account and did not even attempt to retain me as a customer. (By the way I have no other complaints about Best Buy–I just wish they would use ANY OTHER bank to service their credit card).
2. Last year, I applied for a Best Buy RewardZone MasterCard, for which I was told, and the paperwork confirmed, that there would be NO ANNUAL FEE. So much to my surprise my first statement came with a $59 annual fee. Customer service was of no help here either. They just said it was their policy to charge an annual fee, and the paperwork I had was outdated. I didn’t see any “expiration date” on the brochure I was given when I applied, and I though “bait and switch” was illegal. Only after much complaining did they offer to waive HALF the fee. I rejected their “generous” offer, I applied for a NO ANNUAL FEE card, and if you’re not willing to supply that than I don’t want your card and asked that it be closed.
3. The order in which payments are applied does not match what they claim on the front of each statement. Payments made before the “same-as-cash” expiration do not automatically get applied to that plan if you have an interest-bearing promotional plan. While I’ve been able to resolve these misallocation of payments eventually, it usually requires 2 or 3 calls to customer service, and it is a hassle I have to go through EVERY TIME a promotional balance expires. If they would just allocate the payments in the way that is stated on the statements they send, I would not have to deal with this every time.
Interestingly, they have a policy of NEVER waiving the “rush payment” fee (though one rep told that exceptions may be made in the case of natural disasters and the like), but on the other hand, they have waived deferred finance charges (due to the above-described misallocation of payments), leaving me with a gambler’s choice: do I make that “rush payment” with that guaranteed $15 fee that I have no chance of getting waived, or do I make a regular payment and incur a $35 finance charge that I at least have some chance of getting waived? I guess it depends on whether I believe the chances of getting those interest charges waived is greater than 57%.”
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