HSBC effectively shortens a billing cycle by demanding a “rush payment” fee before the payment due date. In other cases customer service representatives (if you can call them that) claim HSBC is sooooooo backlogged with customer payments that you must pay at least five days before the due date. With reputable companies you can pay on the due date without penalty. Not HSBC and HSBC Finance however. In our complaints blog a new complaint calls the rush payment fee an extortion fee. We tend to agree. With the extortion fee a payment that is one day early would be processed late, resulting in a late fee. Is that proper? We think not.
Yesterday we received an email from a soldier in Iraq. The basic theme is the same. As HSBC effectively shortens the window for payments our watchful regulators (sic) need to understand that HSBC Finance also claims that statements are a “courtesy” and not required. (Wrong, and a violation of FDIC law.) HSBC also has a penchant for sending statements so they arrive right before the due date, thus triggering the extortion fee. Is that proper? We think not. However, HSBC has a huge team of lawyers with nothing better to do than discover new ways to make predatory lending look good.
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