Household HSBC Watch

According to the Star Telegram, three credit cards to avoid are First Premier Bank (the card’s first-year fees add up to $276), HSBC American DreamCard (which has a steep 15 percent to 22 percent APR) and New Millennium Visa or MasterCard (which has no grace period to repay purchases or cash advances before a finance charge is imposed). Don’t let the 70 percent dissatisfaction rating sway you (seen on the right) in staying away from HSBC credit cards. Just because the “American Dream” card only has a 22 percent APR if you just wait it will go higher.

According to our complaints blog sooner or later HSBC will claim that your payment was late. If that fails they just won’t mail you a statement. Sooner or later they will get your rate up to the maximum allowed by law.