Household HSBC Watch

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 […]

What always puzzled me was the company’s lack of introspection. Rather than attacking the root of the lack of the production (high rates, high fees, poor customer service), upper management always shifted the blame on the sales representatives. Employees were told that they were not aggressive enough, or that they did not sufficiently […]

Customer service representatives - and Best Buy employees - are reported as telling the customer about their ‘no interest no payment’ plans for 90 days, all the way up 12 months. these reps are wrong. The Best Buy website clearly states this:

No interest for 12 months. Offer applies on qualifying purchases […]

Let’s make a distinction between a subprime loan and a predatory loan. The former is a loan that has a higher-than-market rate of interest to compensate for the risk of lending to a borrower with less-than-perfect credit. The latter is defined as a subset of subprime loans and, and includes one or more of the […]

Early reports indicate the Kansas Attorney General’s office started an investigation into HSBC relative to a consumer’s complaint. The HSBC customer tried to get problems resolved in an intelligent way only to meet with denials and rude customer service representatives that claimed to be doing ‘all they could do.’ Documents received […]

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, Ill., Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ — HSBC - North America has established a special toll-free number — 866-727-HSBC (866-727-4722) — for customers who live in areas of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi that were
directly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. HSBC agents are available to assist customers with inquiries regarding accounts held with HFC, Beneficial, […]

The Belfast Telegraph said in an article of 30 April 2005 “Try this on the net: if you’ve had a bad experience at a bank, type in its name and then: ‘crap service.’” So we did. For once Household - HSBC Watch was not at the top of the rankings in Google. […]

(Note: A November 2007 update to this article is here)

Typically with mergers and acquisitions a 10 percent layoff is seen across the board immediately. We haven’t seen it at Household - HSBC yet. But the acquisition is now complete, names have been changed and the predator has been digested by HSBC. […]

On Juanuary 12, 2005, according to PR NewsWire, “HSBC - North America today announced that Andrew Armishaw, group executive and chief information officer, HSBC - North America, has been recognized by IDG’s Computerworld magazine as one of the business world’s Premier 100 IT Leaders.”

“This award is a testament to Andrew’s contribution to our company […]

Many articles address HSBC’s reputation after they bought troubled U.S. predatory lender Household International. Household was examined by regulators when they evicted an 89 year old woman from her home.

Household International hurt Americans in a way that is neither forgotton nor forgiven. HSBC underestimated the impact on HSBC’s reputation as those hurt by Household […]