Complain about a product or service

HSBC

Harold of Margate, FL February 2, 2008

I opened an account with Direct Merchant Bank on 2001. I used my mastercard with a limit of 5600.00 only when I needed to. In December 2007 I received a letter stating my account would be close due to inactivity. I called Direct Merchants bank, and after speaking with a representative my account was reinstated on December 14, 2007. I used my card to make purchases, and then I received another letter stating that no account can be reinstated as long as it closed.

Then I received another letter saying my account would be officially closed on January 31, 2008. Upon receiving that notification I contacted the bank and I spoke to one Queenie who told me not to worry, that my account is good standing. From 2001 to 2008 I never had a late payment. I believe HSBC  is making decisions that are hurting good customers

Warren of Asheville, NC February 1, 2008

I purchased a car with them through Enterprise. A year later we moved from TN to NC, and I went to register my car. NC would not accept the paper of registration, had to be a card. Called HSBC about getting the title; they said they did not have it. How is this possible? I played phone and fax tag for weeks, and blew up at them on the phone. HSBC employees continued to tell me Enterprise still had the title; but I continued to tell them that I called Enterprise, and it has been out of their hands for over a year.

Possible tickets for not reregistering in NC.

George of Kemp, TX January 28, 2008

Contract was a four year loan. Final payment was supposed to be 11/1/07. I contacted Mike Zugsay about six weeks ago by phone conversation about this matter. Mike Zugsay told me during our conversation that I only made 47 payments and informed me I owed one more final payment of 445.10, and then when he received final payment he would issue the title, which has not been done. Now they are telling me that I have another scheduled payment for January 1, 2008. But my loan matured at the end of December 2007. Also, I have left numerous messages for Mike Zugsay to return my calls about this matter, and as of today,1-28-08, he has not returned any of my calls. So I'm to the point where someone from HSBC will call me and take care of this matter or I will talk to my personal lawyer. The lawyer has already been advised of this situation per phone conversation. This experience with HSBC is my first car loan with them.

Also at the beginning of the loan, I was told of 9.65% interest on the 4 year loan, and when I got my contract it had been increased to 10.10%. That is a .5% increase over the 4 year term. I paid more interest than I was lead to believe I was going to pay. Late charges were to be waived by supervisor Mike Zugsay because he said I had a good pay record and because the payments were not posted on the scheduled payment date, which was not my fault. Every payment was made. They need to send me my title as promised by Mike Zugsay. And nothing negative should be applied to my credit report by HSBC Auto Finance out of San Diego, CA, office.

Nelsonya of Pemberton, NJ January 17, 2008

I got a loan in 1999 with Household Finance for a car I bought. I am a soldier in the US army. My payments were put in an allotment the day I bought the car. I never missed a payment. I was serving in Iraq when my last payment date came. Had to keep the allorment going until my return. Returning from Iraq, I made four payments extra. I stopped the allotment and was waiting for my title. I went to purchase another car and found out that HSBC (which I never had an account with) took over Household Finance and never closed my account.

I sent proof of my purchase of my car and my allotment to collections. My credit is bad because of this. HSBC said Beneficial bought my account, which was a lie. Now I am fighting HSBC to correct this matter. It is 2008, and I am still serving in the military without the title of my old car and unable to by a new one. My old car was paid off in 2005.

Bad credit and unable to by another car for my family that is safe. Due to my vehicle being 9 years old and breaking down.

Christopher of Woodbury, MN January 16, 2008

I contacted the company on 1/11/08 to request a credit limit increase on my credit card, and I was approved immediately for another 100. To my surprise, when I logged onto my account on 1/14/08, I saw the company charged me a 15 fee for a 'so called' CREDIT LINE INCREASE FINANCE CHARGE. They NEVER disclosed this fee, nor do I see anything in my original 'Terms and Agreement' about this fee. I work in the financial bank industry, and I have NEVER heard of such a bogus fee. When I contacted the company that evening, I ended up speaking to a supervisor who told me she was just going to close out my account. I told her that was fine as I don't want to do business with such a company and requested the fee to be removed. She told me the fee was not reversible, so not only did they close out the card 4 days after the 'so-called' credit limit increase, but I am still responsible for this fee.

I think this company's customer service is outside the USA; not a single person I spoke to that day spoke any good English. This is the worst company I've dealt with. I have since paid off the balance in full, including their 15 fee so that I do not ruin my credit rating; however, I am livid about this situation and want to get my fee back and make other consumers aware of this scam.

Angie of Tolleson, AZ January 16, 2008

We have had a mortgage with HSBC, and it's been problem after problem! We have had the same homeowners ins. for years. When we had damage done to our vehicle and our garage door, I filed the claim and found we had NO homeowners ins. for almost a YEAR--without our knowledge. HSBC forgot to pay our homeowners insurance from our escrow account. Now the company we had will not reinstate the policy or have anything to do with us because we look like irresponsible homeowners. To add insult to injury, HSBC mortgage has put forced insurance on our home since I called them to notify them that we had no homeowners insurance. They also kept the check from the forced insurance company because it was so expensive (2,200 for one year). We did not have enough to cover it, so they basically paid themselves for their own mistake and stuck the claim check into our escrow to cover some of the 2,200 we owe them for their forgetfulness.

I have never dealt with such an irresponsible mortgage company in my life, and I've dealt with plenty. One more recent problem: We had our loan modified for a few months due to illness that kept me from working during that time. We contacted HUD, and after many shed tears, HSBC finally modified our loan. Anyway, they did not notify us of the approva;l and in the meantime, out of desperation, we put our home up for short sale after calling them numerous times and getting no response to our plea to lower our payment. They did not accept the short sale, and then by some miracle approved us for the lower payments. By that time we were behind 2 months which hurt our credit, and now we are just doing what we can to get caught up. They didn't  care what happened to us, as long as they are taking care of themselves!

Venu of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, AL January 9, 2008

This is very ridiculous to say about a multinational bank that, the executives/bank officials in Somajiguda (Hyderabad branch) are too rude in their speaking with customers. I actually made an advance payment of rupees 2000/- on the 3rd January-2008, and my billing date is on 5th of every month; but the payment of rupees 2000/- did not reflect in the bill. When I called customer care people, they advised me to either raise a complaint in phone (but it takes 3-4 days to get response) or to go directly to go bank and meet Rahul Varma--that he will solve my problem on the spot. So I decided to meet Rahul Varma in the bank, but in bank one lady officer in a single window desk said, "You cannot meet Rahul Varma, and also if you paid your money then it will reflect in next bill." Then, I asked what is the solution? Then she replied to me that I should go to Chennai branch (very ignorantly). These people talk very softly when they ask us to apply for Credit Card, but they respond in this kind of way after once we became customers.

Due to this bank ignorance, my other transaction in other institute is in pending from last one week (because of insufficient available balance in HSBC card).

Margie of Jamestown, TN December 15, 2007

On December 14, 2007 I received a letter from DISCOVER card stating I had been denied a credit card because of BANKRUPTCY. I did not apply for a Discover Card. I phoned the account number 1-888-333-2201 spoke to a Cheryl and was informed my HSBC account had been bought into bankruptcy. I phoned HSBC speaking to a man calling himself HaBiddis. HaBiddis informed me I had been placed into collection because of bankruptcy. My account had been bought. I asked for a copy of the bankruptcy papers, what state and county it was filed in, and who was the awarding Judge. He informed me he would have to research the problem and I needed to call back in one week. I asked him for a case number or reference. He said there were no case numbers or reference numbers. I asked if I needed to talk to him direct and he replied no.

The letter sent to me was from: New Accounts Department 1-899-515-5297 letter code: NPNA. The report was from Experian P.O. Box 2002 701 Experian Parkway Allen, TX 750113-2002 1-888-397-3742 This report was sent to Discover New Accounts. Again, I did not apply for a Discover Card. I researched my payments and have from March 30, 2007 to June 13, 2007 (the final date of payment to HSBC bank). I phoned and wrote a letter to them expressing my desire to close the account and my check read Paid in Full. The check was cashed and I receive a letter per my request, to close the account. I did dispute paying any interest accrued after I had paid the account in full and it was to have been resolved in August 2007. Now my credit report is in error and HSBC had reported in error to the credit bureaus.

My credit report is in error. It has effected not only my credit, but my husband's as well.

Brenda of Delta Bc, OTHER December 2, 2007

Issue #1: HSBC has been letting me access my account online for free for almost 2 years. Now they say my temporary online access will cost me 10/month.

Issue #2: One of my employees went to the HSBC branch where my business account is to cash her pay check, and after calling me to verify that the check was good they charged her 5 to cash it! They told me that they do that because there is so much fraud now. I asked them why did I bother signing a signature card when I opened the account if they weren't going to look at it when questioning a check?

Issue #3:I have had an HSBC Mastercard for a couple of years and have always paid at least the minimum payment, paid on time, and several times have paid the card balance off in full. On Nov 08 I paid almost 5000 to clear the card. On Nov 29 I tried to use it for an orthodontist downpayment of 1800 and it was not approved. Turns out they reviewed my credit rating and reduced my limit to 500! (My credit rating was good enough for the Royal Bank of Canada to give me a blank cheque status for the purchase of a 650,000 house in March. Since we had over 50% of it as a down payment and an excellent credit rating they said tell us how much you want - no problem.) I called the customer service number from the HSBC website and they offered no help whatsoever. Tomorrow I will be sending a letter to the President of HSBC Bank and a carbon copy to every director on HSBC's board of directors.

Other than the embarrassment of having a credit card refused, I was forced to come up with 1,800 immediately from another source, while the receptionist waited. I have transferred my business account to another financial institution and had to incur the costs of doing that.

Sherry of Tolleson, AZ October 20, 2007

I have tried over and over again to contact HSBC to get help with my resetting mortgage, and I can't even get a live person online. If you indicate that you want to refinance they send you to another subprime lender. Automatically the system just transfers you.

Will I be able to keep my house? Doubtful.

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