Household HSBC Watch

Recently we received complaints about many merchant credit cards managed by HSBC. In fact we receive reports weekly, but we wonder about HSBC Finance and the HSBC technology. One customer said “I went on line two days before my bill was due to pay it and was told that I had to pay a $39.00 LATE FEE because they can’t get to all of the on line payments in a timely manner so you have to pay on line at least 5 days before it is due!! The customer was talking about their Boston Store account. Similar complaints pertained to Carson Pirie Scott, Best Buy, Guitar Center, and Boscov.

What is HSBC thinking? “I just closed to major credit cards with HSBC, because they posted payments “1″ day late and my payments were sent or made on line well in advance…” said another customer. This certainly cannot be good for the merchants that have contracts with HSBC. Is there a FICO threshold above which HSBC does not play these shady and questionable games? Is there an agreement between the merchants and HSBC? Time will tell, but this certainly cannot be good for HSBC, the merchants, nor the customers. This is simply another black eye that speaks volumes about predatory lending. It is a situation that HSBC Holdings PLC Chief Executive Michael Geoghegan condones, and one which HSBC USA encourages.