Household HSBC Watch

Wed Jan 26, 2005 6:32 pm      

Thanks for your question. We are very interested in how people are doing after the $484 million nationwide predatory lending settlement. We've talked to a few of them recently, and one member of the Household Watch team was also caught up in scam.

We took three courses of action. First, you will notice that every page of our website now links to "regulators" - a drop down menu in the upper corner of our pages. Complaints can be filed online in most cases.

Secondly, we wrote to our Attorney General here in Missouri, referencing a proposed conference on Household - HSBC with the national association of Attorney's General. You an see the letter in our document library as Fighting for you 05-1 - just log in as a guest, and look in the "public" folder.

And finally, we spoke with a reporter involved with the article about Bellingham Washington, back before the nationwide settlement, when Household tried to blame all the problems on one rogue office in Bellingham. Remember Melissa Rutland Drury? The court records are still sealed. At any rate, the reporter keeps in touch with us. We do the analysis on retail and credit cards and he does the analysis on Household - HSBC mortgage lending.

If we can get enough replies in this forum, and enough human interest going here, we can probably get an article out of it. If we do it right we can get a Sunday Parade magazine segment or perhaps some television exposure. Here is what needs to happen:

1. People need to post report here. No personal info like account numbers, socials, and no phone numbers.
2. People need to mail or fax a copy to us. Our fax number is 775-587-9738. Our address is T. Blake, c/o Household - HSBC Watch, P.O. Box 642, Warsaw MO 65355-0642.
3. When you fax or mail to us, we must have a phone number where the reporter can contact you. We also need a statement that grants permission to talk to the media on your behalf. It must be signed.

Your letter or fax can be longer and more detailed than what you post in this thread. I will use this thread as a overview when talking to my reporter friend. I would like to say "Go to this web address and tell me if we have a story." Short, sweet, and to the point when dealing with busy people on a deadline. If we get enough human interest we might be able to get the attention of 20/20, 48 Hours Investigates, etc. The reporter should break the story first as a matter of courtesy.

We've done this in the past, and the first question asked is "how do we get in touch with these people?" We've heard it from attorneys, attorney's general, the FTC, SEC and others. If people have any questions about privacy they can call our advocacy center at 646-225-5225. Finally, let's understand that Household and HSBC, and anyone in the world can read this forum. There may be challenges.

Thu Jan 27, 2005 4:37 pm      

This afternoon, January 27, 2005 we received a comment in these forums as seen here. In a reply to "Peaches" it asked how a person can lose their home after the $484 million nationwide settlement. The comment came from Household International, behind the company firewall, on company time. It, and our reply, is reproduced here:



Looks like a simple question from someone, correct? Not exactly. This is the IP address information for this poster:

Record Type: IP Address
IP Location: United States - Illinois - Chicago - Household International
Reverse IP: No websites hosted using this IP address
IP: 63.111.163.13

On company time at 2:56;54 pm, here is more information:

Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Connect 1.0)
Time of Visit Jan 27 2005 2:56:54 pm
Last Page View Jan 27 2005 3:11:17 pm
Visit Length 14 minutes and 23 seconds
Page Views 25

OK Household Employee, posing as "Payment miester." This is a slap in the face to all who experienced your nationwide $484 million settlement. Please refer to this post to see actions taken relative to the settlement. The action you took here just motivates us even more to get nationwide attention for those hurt by your company. Your IP address and actions are duly noted.

Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:29 am      

Thank you Household Watch for responding to "Household International Employee." I would like to answer and ask a few questions to the employee. I mean since he or she is on company time. This could be interesting.

Question: Did you make any payments? How can they take your house if you made payments?

Answer: Yes, we made payments to Beneficial, but before I go into details I would like to ask you some questions.

1. Why did the Attorney General in each state find Household International guilty of deceptive lending practices? In your own words, what all did the company do, to make their mortgage loans illegal?

2. Do you know what predatory lending means? Why does Household International have an image of being "The Predatory Lending?"

3. Why has Household International refused to admit to doing anything wrong when state regulators found them guilty?

4. If you know the meaning of predatory lending, can just making payments keep you from losing your home?

5. Most victims of Household International took part in the settlement. If they only received $500 to $1500 dollars, how could that solve the problem?

6. When you received your money from the settlement, you are still stuck with the predatory loan. Your payments stayed the same. If Household refused to reduce your payments so you can keep your house, what would be the results? If this was your family in this situation, what would happen to you?

7. Why is Household International involved in so many class action lawsuits?

8. If Household did two secured loans on a house, and the results made the loan 145 percent more than the value of the home, could you refinance with another company? Could you sell your home? How?

9. Why are there so many private lawsuits?

10. People on the forum are telling how they are making payments on their Best-Buys Cards, Household Bank Cards, and Orchard Cards. When they send in their payments on time, the company still charge them a late fee. If this was happening to you, would you be able to pay off your balance? How?

11. Explain in your own words the Shea vs. Household International case. What about the lawsuit against Best-Buy in New Jersey?

12. Household International has the Fresh Start Program for people who have lost their home in a foreclosure because of there lending scam. What I understand is if you took part in the settlement, you can't take part in this program unless the rules have changed. Household knew many people took part in the settlement. How can the program help those who lost their house in a foreclosure if they took the raw settlement deal?
Why would Household International have a program if they could not help all their victims?

13. We never receive a mortgage statement or bill each month on a secured loan. Why does Household/Beneficial refuse to send any statement out? Even on there credit cards? If you do receive a bill or statement it is not every month? Why does this happen?

14. Household International also has the Foreclosure Advoidance Program. In the results of Household/Beneficial lending practices many victims have filed bankruptcy.I have read several articles that if you have filed bankruptcy this program is not for you. If a victim had to file bankruptcy because of Household/Beneficial lending scam, do you think the company should help them keep their home? Several lawyers I have spoke with are fighting for the rights of the bankruptcy victims? Do you think your company should stand and take full responsiblity? I have read several compliants about victims who had no choice but to file bankruptcy because of Household International. If this was you and your family, Do you think the company would help you? Why or why not?

15. Why were there so many victims of Household/Benefcial predatory lending scams between 1999 to 2004?

16. If you make your payments on time, how come the balance on your mortgage or revolving loan never changed? How can you pay off your balance if you are the victim of this?

17. If you have to call a Household Employee, how come most of the time they are not in the office. If you leave a message, you do not get a call back? If you have a question, you have to talk to so many different employees to get an answer? If you do get an answer, how come most of the time it doesn't make sense? Why have some ex-employees confess to telling lies to get the consumers business or money?

18. Why is Household International faces RICO charges?

19. Why are there so many complaints about foreclosures written to the Attorney General in each state? Why are the letters about Household/Beneficial?

20. Last question, are you ready? What happen to the young lady that confess to shredded papers? Why has there been two books written about predatory lending and the focus is on Household International? Why have some ex-ployees confess to the company forging people signatures? Why are there so many complaint websites about Household International?

If you know the RIGHT ANSWER to the questions, you know what happen to me and others. If just making the payments was the answer, the Attorney General in each state would not have found Household International guilty of anything. Refinancing with Household International is like borrowing money from a loan shark. Instead of looking for the answer from the victims, ask Household International what happen?

Sat Jan 29, 2005 10:17 am      

Household Watch sent a letter to HSBC Corporate Headquarters in London, citing what happened and what was said.

In the letter I stated that the actions of the Household employee reflect poorly on HSBC, HSBC North America and asked for Chairman John Bond's reply.

HSBC visits this website, as does Household International. Both saw our award for quote of the year for 2004 given to a Household Employee in kentucky. This slap in the face from another Household Employee caused me to print it here again, for the general public to see:

"The consumers with their complaints are the pieces of s**t that do not know how to manage money. Get an education and use it. Stop buying things and using credit cards. Invest in some real estate and drive a crappy car through your pitiful lives. At least you will retire thinking you accomplished something.”

Peaches, your comments and the questions you ask clearly reflect the frustration of Household International and HSBC customers. I had a second mortgage from HFC, was glad when it was paid off, and understand what you are saying. You are right on target and I agree with you on all points. Thanks for your input.

As for "Payment miester" we might have a Household - HSBC Employee quote of the year for 2005 already. As I told Sir John Bond, I am sure that whoever operated the workstation at the IP address given, at the time stated, will weasel out by saying that "somebody else must have done it."

Educated bankers in the original HSBC system do not recognize William Aldinger and his band of 53,000 predators as HSBC employees unless they must, and certainly don't regard them in the same professional way as is expected of world class bankers. This is just another case of a lack of professionalism and demonstrates another blow to HSBC reputation.

Mon Jan 31, 2005 9:09 am      

Several months ago I was contacted by a news station in South Carolina to do an interview about something. So since they came to my house to do an interview about a 'consumer website' I found this to be a great opportunity to ask if she does reports on ALL types of business: good and bad. She said, ofcourse. I asked her if they had done a segment on Household/Beneficial. She told me no, but she asked if I would be willing to do an interview about them. I said, "anything to keep one more person from being subjected to their terrible lending practices". I thought there may be others here in the upstate of South Carolina that would be willing to share information with them for a news segment. If one persons sees that segment and knows to never do business with Household/Beneficial then that's a great thing! If you'd like, email me at triplej2002@charter.net with contact information (if you want) and your complaint and I'll complile a list to send to her. You don't have to be from SC though, send any complaints and I'm sure they will put them on television. It may not be a huge station, but their viewing area stretches from northern Georgia, to Western North Carolina and the upstate of South Carolina. Anyone is these areas, please send info! We should do everything we can to keep others from being subjected to these people! Thank you!