Household HSBC Watch

Our headlines screamed: “HSBC posts Boscov payment one day late” and “HSBC loses customer for Boscovs due to late payment processing” and “Boscovs and HSBC Forgets To Mail December Bill.” Now Boscov’s has filed for bankruptcy. The formula is simple: When a merchant signs a contract with HSBC for credit card […]

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Microsoft Corp. and a unit of Best Buy Co., ending a bid by the two companies to stop a class-action lawsuit over a joint marketing campaign for MSN Internet Access service.

The companies had appealed a lower court ruling that allowed them to be sued under […]

Many suspect a racketeering case will eventually include electronics retailer Best Buy and HSBC. At issue is ongoing compensation to Best Buy due to payments HSBC says are “late” when in fact they are not. However, Best Buy is already wrapped up in a racketeering case, this time with Microsoft. In the […]

Shares of HSBC Holdings have extended their four-month losing streak amid concern that a crisis in the U.S. mortgage industry will erode earnings this year. HSBC’s stock has fallen every month since November, when the bank — the largest in Europe — said bad debts in the United States were rising. The stock fell […]

HSBC’s high interest tax loan partner H&R Block Inc. lost $156.5 million during its second quarter, nearly twice its loss from a year ago, primarily because of weaker results in its mortgage business.

The Kansas City-based company said it continues to weigh a sale or spinoff of its Option One Mortgage business, which makes home loans […]

Chicago (Aug. 31, 2006) - Tax prep giant H&R Block Inc. announced that a federal judge has approved a $39-million settlement of a class-action lawsuit brought by customers over the company’s refund anticipation loans. A U.S. district court judge approved the settlement, the group’s third effort to reach a agreement in the suit, […]

Typically the introduction and maintenance of a private-label card is more of a financially driven decision that means lower credit processing fees and more money made off of each transaction. A review of merchants in the HSBC Finance Corporation Household International private label card program indicate many are in financial trouble. The decision to […]

“I have seen other companies pursue this strategy in the past, but I see it at a decreasing rate,” said Gary Hawkins of Hawkins Strategic. “It seems fewer are pursuing private-label credit cards today. Retailers just have not seen the relationship return from it.” “Private-label credit cards rarely capture more than 10 percent of […]

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 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 […]