Household HSBC Watch

One fact everyone knows about HSBC Finance Corporation, a subprime division of HSBC, is the company will not modify or change anything willingly. When HSBC says they modified 11,900 sub-prime mortgages, valued at $1.9bn, that were due to reset to punitively high rates this year it was not done willingly. HSBC Finance has its own method for punitively high rates for account holders. Whether it is an auto loan, credit card, or mortgage HSBC claims payments are late even if they are not.

Customers get paid like you and I, and mail all of their payments to creditors on the same day, usually at the same time. How can HSBC process payments 10 days later than all other creditors? Clearly too many customers have a method for comparing HSBC to other creditors, as their bank clearly shows when payments were processed, paid, and applied. But this questionable process is in peril, as a recent government proposal might forbid credit card companies from raising rates just because they want to.

HSBC Finance cannot be trusted. Brendan McDonagh, head of HSBC North America, said: “Given the risk of recession, its too early to say whether the rest of the year will see a gradual reduction.” McDonagh is referring to mortgages. Sorry pal, but the real problem is in the credit card business. That is where HSBC cannot be trusted to process payments in a timely manner. Actually the problem is in all areas of HSBC Finance, which is where McDonagh got his start, moving to HSBC North America as did his predecessors. They were all removed, sacrificed, or retired. When will Chief executive Michael Geoghegan learn that the head of HSBC North America SHOULD NOT be an employee of HSBC Finance? Is Michael Geoghegan up to the task? I don’t think so, as it would cause him to know too many things he does not want to know. Michael Geoghegan would learn how HSBC Finance makes its money, and why HSBC Finance processing centers cannot be trusted.