RS in Pennsylvania said: “I cannot believe what I am reading, but now understand why this happened to me. I was thinking I messed up and threw away a bill or something, but now I see HSBC is a SCAM! I got socked with 2 of those $29 service fees. I have had my Boscov’s charge a very long time, and had paper billing and there was no problem. All of a sudden I see an entry in my checking statement making a payment to HSBC RS. I have no idea how it got there. I called the bank to find out what it was [HSBC RS] and they had no idea. Then I researched those initials on the internet, found the compnay and called. That is when I found out HSBC now has 2 of my store cards, and that I was in arrears and that supposedly I authorized and online debit from my bank. BUT I DID NOT DO THAT! This is scary. Not only am I out the $58 for 2 months of “service charges” but somehow they got money out of my checking account!
When I tracked down HSBC, they had the correct address, but I never received the bill. Still I had to pay, as a couple months went by.
WARNING: If you elect to get electronic bills, make sure you know what the sender uses for an email address. It looks NOTHING like the store with whom you have the charge. This Christmas season I was also socked the same $29 two times from Barclay Bank on an LLBean charge. The bills must have gone to spam and I must have deleted them. Of course no one followed up with a call or with a subject or address I would recognize as LLBean. That would ruin the chance to keep charging me.
I have a perfect credit rating - get a bill pay a bill, but I am not in the habit of doing detective work to find something in my spam folder that might be a bill.
I think the $29 must be the max they can charge people as that magic number keeps coming up.
So I am cancelling all store charges, and being much more diligent to watch for anything coming in on a charge, but this was a VERY expensive lesson, not to mention out and out theft! I know the economy is bad, but what a way to make money - hurt other people.
Is there anything we can do to make our voices heard?”
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