Household HSBC Watch

Predatory lender HSBC Finance Corp. once backed the K-Mart credit card, but not any more. It appears K-Mart signed with HSBC (Household International) because the troubled retailer needed every dime the could milk from customers. Now it appears they still have customer problems.

On November 28, 2005 advocates were told “We’ve seen a spike in Sears complaints ever since the retail giant merged with Kmart last March.” It got so bad, Long Island’s Nassau County slapped Sears with a rare fine and a 72 hour ultimatum. Roger Bogsted, Nassau County Consumer Affairs: “We’ve seen a 350 percent increase in complaints from Sears in 2005.”