Household HSBC Watch

H&R Block Inc on Wednesday said its Block Financial LLC unit obtained a $3 billion credit line from HSBC Finance Corp, which will be used to fund loans for some taxpayers who expect refunds. Just last week we reported that the IRS says such loans can perpetuate fraud. For two companies that […]

On one hand HSBC spokesman Michael Trevino said tax refund loans “represents a very small portion’’ of HSBC’s revenue. On the other hand such loans represent bad publicity for HSBC, with interest rates sometimes over 100 percent. Lawsuits such as Carnegie vs Household, paid by HSBC in 2007, cast HSBC in a bad […]

Most sued and former executive of HSBC and CEO of predatory lender Household International William F. Aldinger III once boasted that his company ‘invented tax refund loans’ - and they are proud of it. Household, and later HSBC, partnered with H&R Block. H&R Block CEO Mark Ernst appeared eager to turn the […]

North Carolina State Treasurer Richard Moore appeared on the CNBC show “Squawk Box” on Thursday morning. Moore used his television appearance to send a message to H&R Block about its high-interest, short-term loans, his office said. Moore is working with the Community Reinvestment Association of North Carolina to end the loans H&R Block offers […]

NEW YORK — 3/15/2006 - New York state has filed a $250 million fraud suit against HSBC’s partner in predatory income tax loans, H&R Block.

The suit against the nation’s largest tax-preparing service charges the company fraudulently steered customers into a losing retirement account plan.
The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Eilot Spitzer in Manhattan’s state Supreme […]

HSBC partner, tax preparer H&R Block, will restate earnings. The company, which is in the middle of its make-or-break season preparing other people’s tax returns, said it had underestimated its own “state effective income tax rate” in previous quarters — meaning it owes another $32 million in back taxes.

As a result, H&R Block […]

Who would pay an annualized rate of 178 percent on a 10-day loan they are essentially making to themselves?

Apparently over 12 million taxpayers would, according to the National Consumer Law Center. That is how many taxpayers took out a refund anticipation loan, or RALs, in 2004. Though these loans are more often referred to as […]

HSBC Finance Corp. of Prospect Heights has hired Cindy Baier, most recently president of Whitehall Jewellers Inc., as managing director, helping to develop credit card programs for retailers. Before working at Whitehall, Baier was senior vice president and general manager of the credit and financial products business at Hoffman Estates-based Sears, Roebuck and Co. HSBC […]

Under tax refund anticipation loan programs, customers who owed a tax refund could receive most of the money in two to three business days by paying a fee to file the return electronically and a loan processing fee. Critics assert the loans victimize low-income households, immigrants and financially unsophisticated taxpayers who weren’t adequately informed […]

In another blow to HSBC’s reputation thanks in part to Household International, just this week, HSBC came under fire by more than 100 national and New York-based consumer organizations and community groups calling for state restrictions on “tax refund anticipation loans” and the high amounts of interest and administrative fees charged for them. According to […]