HSBC Reviews

As we were struggling to pay, the same person was taken ill with a life threatening illness and went into respiratory failure and was incubated and hospitalized for 3 months. I ended up disabled with complete hearing loss in 1 ear and a compromised immune system. The choice for work was very limited and ultimately was able to secure a phone job which pays half of what the person earned. I was able to barely make the mortgage payments after getting all the assets liquidated for 401k, etc. and help from family and friends.

Then came the deadline for adjustment and we were slammed with an increase to 10%. First, they gave us a forbearance agreement which meant that they put a few payments at the back of the loan at the high interest, which added $6,000 to our loan. After going back and forth with the loan modification dept and speaking to a different person every time who gave contradicting information, we were able to secure a temporary loan modification for 6 months. This was in October 2007.

Since then, our experience with HSBC has been a living nightmare. We need to gather all documents like preparing for a pilgrimage only that we don't have the peace of mind like that. We fax documents and they have no trail of it. They scrutinize our income and say that we can afford to pay it even at 11% interest because we have $200 more according to their calculation. In their accounting, a car payment, credit card payment or the State college tuition fee for our only child is not an expense. I want to ask the head of HSBC Mr. B. McDonough, who I quote as saying in Business Week article of July 7, 2008 "We have complete flexibility." What do you mean? Do you mean that we could do our jobs without a car in the suburbs of NY to get to the job? Do you mean we should keep my full time college student in a State university at home so that we could pay the mortgage?

Every time I go to them, they make us look like begging, asking to send them a hardship letter. There are many millionaires paying 4.5% interest on their mortgage and we have to beg and go to them on our knees to stay in a 6.5% mortgage. If this does not take our self esteem away from us, I don't know what does. They are ** bent on keeping to the mortgage agreement got into with a different company, even though the housing market has collapsed and we owe more than the house is worth.

When we talk to the people at the loan modification department, they have different things to say. One told us that my only option is foreclosure and another told us that there are tools to help us such as a "short sale". Yet, another person said when inquired about what the government is suggesting on doing to keep people in their home, "We did not take any money from the government and we don't follow government’s recommendations." No one considers the fact that we are already paying 6.7 (which is a temp modification) and all we want is to continue to stay in that without having to label us as hardship and avoid the misery to have to go through this every 6 months because neither our income or our expenses are going to change.

Added to all this, we have to pay our own taxes and having to pay such a high mortgage, we could not afford to pay our local taxes in time. When the taxes go past due, even though I had made an arrangement with the finance dept to pay it over a period of 2 years, the bank advanced the money so that their will not be another lien on the property.

Subsequently, we negotiated with the bank to re-pay the tax advance over 36 months and they agreed in writing. After doing so, they decided to go back and reverse all the payments made on time and applied towards the tax advance and reported us as late to the credit bureaus. They made the correction after numerous contacts but failed to correct the information with the credit bureaus and we are still battling that.

We will never be able to refinance because there is negative information in our credit reports and as it is now we have no peace of mind to live our life and we are only one sickness or disaster away from foreclosure. We are sure there are many facing similar circumstances with this bank; those who are not willing to walk away from their houses and who want to pay more than reasonable interest rate compared to the market rates and still made to feel like begging for food. We sincerely wish this is brought to the authorities concerned and we are provided with some redress.

The rep said all of the mail sent to our physical address was returned undeliverable. I told her we get our mail at a P.O. Box. She stated we should have notified them of that. I told her how could we if we were never notified they had our loan. I told her our mailing address was included in the loan documentation with Fremont. She stated they did not have the loan docs. From that point forward we have had numerous problems with them: unexplained fees, penalties, their losing our documentation request for hardship assistance over and over again. The bottom line of this complaint is... HSBC is not the registered holder of our mortgage or note. There is no recorded proof of their assignment of our note or mortgage.

How can someone file a complaint for foreclosure without providing evidence they are in fact the true holders of the original note and mortgage; or have recorded proof of assignment as such? Can we not get the complaint dismissed and a clear title since HSBC nor Ocwen holds proof of the original note and mortgage nor do they have the assignment? Besides the stress, it has caused bad credit rating, increase in payments, and other amounts due for default fees, penalties, etc. added to the balance of the loan and the possibility of losing our home to someone who doesn't even hold an interest in it.

The check itself was for $4451.00 (around), I called them and explained that I spoke to someone in the Claims Dept. and they said since it was under $10,000 there would be no problem. Well, now they said that, that was the Claims Dept. and they gave me the wrong information even though I have a paper stating the same info. I asked to talk to someone in the Claims Dept. They then said that they did not have a Claims Dept. I told them that there is no way I can repair the damages with only $1,500, see as my insurance company under cut my contractor's bid to begin with. They said if I got an estimate from Lowes for the materials needed, and a letter stating I had to do the repairs myself, then they would release half to get me started. I did what they asked of me. Now they say because my payment history is not perfect, they will only release 1/3 of my check.

It has been over 3 months since my damage. My house roof in now leaking inside my house and the damage is getting worse. It is getting to the point that me and my family is in danger. I am just a blue collar worker living paycheck to paycheck. I make all repairs needed to my home and pay my house insurance. I do not think it is right that these companies should be able to hold our monies and profit by them, while we have to suffer. And for what something that is supposed to be ours in the first place. We work and pay for everything we have, not them. We make the repairs and improvements, not them. HSBC is a heartless and evil company. Without my insurance check to make my repairs I have to sit back and literally watch my roof come down on me and my children's heads. May God have mercy on their souls.

I finally asked to speak to the fraud division. They supposedly have opened an investigation into who opened the account, and they said that they can tell if I opened it or if someone else did it using my information. I know I didn't open it, but it will be interesting to hear what they have to say. I am wondering if they sent a pre-approved application to my address and someone got it from my mailbox and sent it in, or if HSBC just somehow opened it on their own. The account was supposedly opened in 2008 but the telephone number on the account is not my current number and hasn't been my number for several years. It seems that if I had actually opened this account, I would have used my current telephone number, right?

I don't know what the situation is, but I am getting sick of the harassing phone calls, explaining the situation, being told I don't owe the balance, only to have the harassment begin all over again. Is HSBC really that desperate for money? They certainly seem to be crossing lines, and possibly laws, to get there! I'm constantly being harassed to pay a balance made up of only fees and interest on a credit card I do not have, and this unpaid balance is now on my credit report. I guess it will have to stay there because I am not going to pay them money that I don't owe to them.

Today, I contacted HSBC in order to discuss their reason for declining my request. They said their decision was based on past due accounts being reported by Equifax. I went online to the Equifax website and requested a copy of my credit report. The information in my Equifax report was not consistent with what HSBC told me.

I contacted HSBC a second time and told them I had a copy of my credit report and what they were telling me was not consistent with the information in my file. I was told there was nothing more they could do to help me. My account with HSBC in the past was handled as agreed. I paid the account off in full prior to the end of the promotional period and they were not able to collect interest fees. I believe they did not want to extend credit to me again because they realized that I would handle my account the same way and that they again would not collect fees from me. Instead, they wanted me to accept their MasterCard which would generate fees for them from the very beginning. Best Buy is prompting a Three Year No Interest Finance Plan. HSBC is underwriting the promotion. I am being told that I do not qualify for the promotion because of negative information in my credit file. I believe I am being discriminated against because HSBC realizes they won't generate any fees from my purchase.

Anyway, payment of $260.00 was paid via Western Union today, June 17, but I have to wait two days in order for the vehicle to be released to me. This is costing me more money, which I do not have. Note that I have and was sending payments monthly (not the full amount), yet the vehicle was taken. Quite a scam. If only the amount owed on the vehicle was $960.00...

In fact, I have informed them on a couple of occasions that I was having financial issues. And I did mention in one conversation that I would make or meet the monthly payments. I am aware of my obligation to them. But to have to wait two days and incur cost for the vehicle to sit on a lot is not right. It seems as if they are adding money onto a loan that would have been paid off at the end of the year--beginning of next.

I am a widow of my husband of 36 years. He died of cancer and I was left with no income. After receiving VA benefits and gaining a part time job, I had tried to pay all my debts. Please help me recover my $600 so that I can use it towards any needs I have. The account # is **. I just called Arrow Financial to inquire and claim my $600 owed back to me. Arrow Financial just sent me a check for $100 last week for overpayment for a closed Chase Morgan account. I spoke of that to their customer service along with my inquiry for my $600 owed to me for overpayment for Household Platinum HSBC. She has my identity and asked me to hold, forwarded me to voicemail. So I called back and she disconnected me. So I see now where my $600 is held. Please help me gain back this amount owed to me. I appreciate this so much and look forward to hearing about this matter. Thank you so much for listening.

Now as I explained, I have lost my job and been unable to make the necessary repayments for the last 3 months. I have been put on travel restrictions which mean I cannot leave the country to travel back to my home country which is the UK. I was not aware at the time of taking the loan that the bank HSBC could do this. I just thought the loan would be transferred to my home country. I have also been told by the bank that if I don’t repay the loan in full, then I will go to prison. I don’t have a lawyer because I can’t afford one and I will be homeless in less than 2 weeks. I have been to my embassy and was told that they can’t help me.

When I called HSBC to verify the credit, a representative informed me that the account is blocked, so no one can use it for a charge or a refund but he refused to give me any other information unless I release my sister and my wife's name and her date of birth. He stated it is required by FACTA. However, FACTA let them verify me and only my identity and not my family or friends. Now, I am risking my excellent credit history, unless I pay for this Hong Kong Bank side services I never applied for. I still have those two not cashed checks they send as a bite. Someone stated earlier, Stay away from HSBC." It sounds like a good advice. Chinese/British services do not fit the American ethical business market.

What started to be $69 a month went to $200 a month. We sent them more letters that we could not afford this new monthly payment. HSBC basically told us if we did not pay, they would exercise their right to repossess the ATV. That is going way too far. I then received a form to fill out if I wanted them to extend the time to pay this payment without. I sent the form back accepting the offer from HSBC to extend the time I had to pay this $200. HSBC sent me forms at least three times for the same reason. It is obvious they do not know what they are doing. That was April 2009. Now the payment is up to $800. Tell me how the payment increased to $800 in two months. I thought I was still safe that HSBC had offered the extension.

Yesterday, a repo man showed up at our home to repo my ATV. This is outrageous. We had an agreement. When I asked to see the paperwork, the gentleman did not want me to see the paperwork. I told him he was not going anywhere with my ATV unless I can read the paperwork. He handed me the papers and I tried to read it when the man grabbed the papers out of my hands. I do not know why he did this but he almost knocked me down when he did it. I am 63 years old and have to use a cane to get around. I could have hurt myself. I went on the internet to find out my rights and the site I found said that a repo company cannot touch you or violate your rights in any way. I consider that assault. HSBC repossessed my ATV without cause because we had an agreement to extend the payment. This is called Breach of the Peace when a repo company touches you or commits violence. According to a California repossession attorney that is like stealing my ATV and HSBC does not have the right to do that. I want my ATV back. HSBC took it without cause.

Sue, a customer service supervisor at HSBC, admitted to me that both mistakes (the misappropriation and my being reported as deceased) were their fault and would be corrected if I provided proper documentation. I spent half of the next day gathering documents, getting them notarized, and faxing them to HSBC. HSBC would not reveal whose account it had been applied to because my name was not on it. HSBC then tried to withdraw the approximately $1242.85 and was unsuccessful. My wife then received a letter from her Sears credit card account (HSBC) saying the funds she had requested to be withdrawn would result in fees and other charges due to her going over her credit limit. She never requested this because we weren't even aware that the funds had been applied to her account until we received the letter. I called HSBC again to discuss the letter.

I was told by this person that he would get all three departments together probe this issue and discuss solutions. I still have not received the promised confirmation that my credit bureau information has been updated and negative hits from HSBC removed. I am supposed to receive a call from them tomorrow (June 04, 2009). We are paying interest on multiple accounts for at least an extra 2 months that would have been paid off. The extra interest we are paying because of this would be close to what we supposedly owe HSBC. I missed approximately 8 hours of work trying to gather and send information to prove that I am alive (while one push of a button from HSBC made me "dead"). This has been a very stressful and depressing situation. After working hard for several years to improve my credit score, I was very proud to be a 700+. I now have no credit score. It remains to be seen what my score will be when HSBC is done doing as they please with my credit score and my life. This will also affect my wife's score, I assume, if they do remove the funds from her account. It seems that large corporations do as they please with no consequences.

In the last 48 hours, they have called me 16 times from the same number. They do not leave a message when I let my voice mail get it, and when I pick up the phone, I hear noises in the background, but no one answers. It appears to be some sort of harassment tactic.

This represents an extremely undesirable company. They should be forced into bankruptcy by their customers. I've never dealt with them, and after this, certainly never will.

Now, June 1, 2009, I found out that they have not closed the accounts but have imposed more late fees. I called Customer Service and asked them to close the accounts for which they directed me to Collection Centre. I called Collection Centre and they are directing me to Customer Service. Even after paying their annual fee which shouldn't have been levied in first place, they are after the late fees and asking me to pay and dare to say that they won't close the accounts.

Now the late fee charges have come to 1447/-Dirhams. Could somebody please tell me what can happen if I don't pay? I'm not in UAE currently and have no intention of going back to Dubai. This is harassment. I'm planning to apply for a police clearance certificate just to make sure I'm safe.

After it didn't, I started making calls to the branch in Edison, NJ and via 800#. Then the rep (Jay) from Edison, NJ finally said, "Oh, we don't apply payments for car loans at the branch, we accept it as a courtesy and we send it to them (HSBC in MD) to process." So at this point, I said "What?! Why wasn't I informed of this, as I could have avoided all of this by simply sending my payment via MoneyGram which I have done in the past and had no problems making the payment this way (note that this was a three-way call because I called the branch in Edison, NJ and 800# together)." The rep on the 800 # made a comment in my account to note payment was made at the branch, which doesn't help me as I spoke to another rep previously on 5/23/09 who made a note on my account, "to only stop calls to me until this Friday, 5/29/09, as the payment was made at the Edison, NJ branch." As of date, the payment still did not post.

HSBC is an underhanded company that trains their C/S reps to lie and don't inform customers of the entire truth on their payment process.

My attorney contacted me and advised me if I hadn't heard from the co. to go ahead and send a payment, which I did on May 1st. On 5/22/09, I received a FedEx from mortgage co. advising they would initiate foreclosure by May 28, 2009. I called them and they advised they never received my attorney's letter nor the original signed reaffirmation or my check of 5/01/09. I told them I would be contacting another attorney to see what action I could take against them. To date, I have had no further contact from them.

I called HSBC and restarted the Auto Deduct and had the service tech give me what the minimum would be since I just had to shell out an extra $60 that I shouldn't have had to and he told me it would be $56. Great, I set it up and thought everything was fixed, but nope they had another surprise in mind. I received a bill just last week that says I owe them $38 now because I was $3 short on my automatic deduction. Now, wait! They told me how much to pay! I wish I could make money this way! Tell someone they owe me this much and when they pay it, tell them, oops, not enough; you now owe me an extra $38 because I gave you the wrong amount! This is BS and this place needs to be set straight!

I contacted HSBC at this time and found that none of the payments I had set up for auto pay had actually gone into the account. I also found out that instead of contacting me by email or phone (as they had been doing constantly for various offers), HSBC charged me with over $500 in fees. They stated it was for NSF payments. I asked why they didn't try to contact me and why did they send me emails stating that my payment had been received. They answered that they sent info with their monthly statement. I advised that I did not read the statement since I was receiving emails from them stating that everything was received as well as several calls and emails offering me different promos.

I asked that due to the circumstances could they remove the very large fees they charged and I will once again due weekly payments. They refused. I advised that they never attempted to contact me in any way and I never was over the limit on the card, so I do not feel I should be charged with over $500 in fees. They refused again. I am now getting approximately 6-7 calls an hour from these people tying to get me to pay the full balance. I've told them several times to stop calling. I even went as far as to say I will not pay, send me to collections. They still refuse to do even that and are continuing to call me every 5 minutes.

I wonder how HSBC takes money out of my bank account without authorization (which seems like fraud to me), then takes up to 30 days to deposit my money back into my back account? I never signed up for an automatic payment plan and they automatically took out $800 from my bank account, which caused about three overdraft fees and they are going to take up to 30 days to put the money back into my account. I simply don't understand how they can get away with this.

However, this second time is a red flag - I have every bill I have received and paid in a pile on my desk for next year's taxes and I checked and double checked, but there is no billing for last month. I am seeking to have this fee removed as well as cancel this credit card, but is there anything more we can do? I am working on a paper regarding credit cards and usury, but this is above and beyond - the interest rates are one thing. However, to withhold billings for those who are paying off the entire bill monthly so they can charge late fees is unacceptable. I am livid.

I'm not normally late on any of my bills, not even HSBC. Why would I put all my accounts into a credit counselor? I noticed in Google that there is no corporate address for HSBC listed. I accessed a web page containing the ridiculous salaries and bonuses HSBC personnel earn in NYC. HSBC put a tracking cookie in my computer from that page that I later found and deleted. I sent a certified letter to card Member services in May. If they can hold up on the fees for 60 days, I can bring this account current. They cancelled my account with my April billing without answering my faxed letter. I felt this was unfair. It damaged my credit rating.

It has horrible customer service. When dialing main customer service # 1 877 472 2249, there are 4 options. None of them say speak to a representative. You have to go through all of them or pick an option that doesn't pertain to your call before you can get someone on the phone. When I mentioned this to them, they said I should have hit option 1 (which says to access your account using our automated system, hit 1). Why would I select option 1 when it references the automated system and I am calling to speak to a rep? It's misleading and they do everything they can to minimize the amount of callers who can get through. They don't post branch numbers and make it very hard for people to get through on the customer service line.

Credit card statements for our Mastercards have come through with errors on them, actual accounting, posting errors on them. I couldn't believe it. Due to a security reason, they automatically switched hundreds of credit card holders from consolidated billing (used for accounts with multiples cards on them) to individual billing with no authorization. They said they had to do this because someone breached their system and they wanted to make sure there was no fraud. So, to switch it back, I had to send a request on letterhead even though the 1st switch was done with no authorization from us. I sent the request 3 times and it was still not done. it was just ignored.

Bank statements arrive late all the time. When I call my branch rep, he never responds to email or phone vm. When I call the main customer service #, they ask me to pay $5 for a copy even though the 1st copy never made it to our offices. They ask for 7 business days to send a new copy or suggest an earlier close out date for the statement or going to the branch for a copy. I need to close out books by the 5th of the month and just need the statement to arrive on time as it's supposed to.

When I called the main number to ask for a complaint line, she asked questions that were irrelevant to my request. She asked if I was the owner of the company, a signer on the account, what my issue pertained to ... and finally refused to direct me to where I could file my complaint. I told her this was unethical and probably illegal to intercept my complaint in this way. They are, by far, the most unethical bank I have ever dealt with.

On April 2, I called them again since I had not received my check. I again was given the same information by their automated system regarding my rewards. I was informed by one of their reps that a check was being mailed and I would have it in 2-3 weeks. On May 6, I called again. Again, it was the same information on their automated system. When a rep finally answered the phone, I asked for a supervisor immediately. When I asked for my rewards again and told her of the history, I was put on hold and first she said she'd make another request and then she put me on hold again and told me since my account was closed, that I wasn't due any rewards. I then told her what her automatic system says about my rewards, read her the letter and asked why I was told two other times that I would be receiving a check. She said she'd have to check on it and get back to me. I then asked for her supervisor and was told they are all busy, out of the office, or on the phone but they would call me back.

I left my name and number and was promised a call - I told her I expected a call within 24 hours or I would take further action. They should send me a check plus interest and fees since they are now over 60 days in default to me!

I received a letter from HSBC April 7, the letter was dated March 30th, stating that they were unable to resolve my dispute, the purchase was made through a secured website and my 3 digit pin was apparently used. However, they were not able to provide a receipt, and that they suggested I contact the merchant directly. The website is in Spanish, the company is in Spain, and I have no record of this purchase except the statement from my credit card company, not much to work with. I called HSBC, spent about an hour and a half on the phone, being transferred back and forth between customer service, the fraud department and dispute.

Finally, a representative told me that I could fax them another letter regarding the dispute on my account and a copy of my driver’s license. I did that, I kept the copies and the confirmation of the fax. A few days later, I received another letter denying my claim, dated the exact same day I spoke with a representative. That was one short-lived investigation. So I was back on the phone, tossed around again, and finally got a hold of a person that tried helping me (Irene, not the Irene that was handling my account, but another person in the office). She asked me to fax the exact same information I did on 04/07/09, with her name and ID number, and gave me her direct line (thank heavens). She said she would hand deliver this to my account manager, and gave me the name of her supervisor, Leti (which always seems to be unavailable when I call).

I re-faxed it, I have the second confirmation, it went through and I waited. The collection calls continued, but now they are calling my husband as well. May 4, I received another letter, same story, "denied." I called them again, May 5, today. I talked to Irene, not my account manager, Irene (she is out of town for the week), helpful Irene said (after a 10 minute search) she found my fax, they had received it, okay. She said the only thing she could do was hand this off to management for review. This has been going on now for 5 months. I have done everything I can, and I'm still getting the runaround.

I complained that I was unaware of having signed up with the service to which they produced the signed application. I don't dispute having signed it, but the amount they have charged is onerous and egregious. HSBC has no vested interest in reducing this amount and indicated they were not inclined to do so. Therefore, I am writing to advise others, like me, to be very cautious about these "services" they offer. I also hope someone will force these "thieves" to produce a schedule showing the amount of money that will be accumulated so that consumers will not be blindsided by such a charge.

I then noticed my account had 2 payments taken out. I called HSBC Auto customer service and spoke to Elaine ** and she said for me to go to the bank and get a letter to show the 2 payments that came out. I also told her that I had negative amounts due to the negative. She said to make sure all the amounts were showing when I faxed the information to them. She told me to fax it to the clerical department, 1-866-313-7349, and this would take a couple of days. I spoke to her approximately on the 7th April, 2009. I got all the information she told me to fax and faxed it, I believe, on the 9th of April.

The next Tuesday, I called back to HSBC Auto and spoke with Patty ** and questioned my check and she told me that it had been approved and it would be ready the next day on Wednesday. I asked her about how long it would take and she said she would tell them I was requesting it overnight. I then informed her that I was continuing to build up on the fees since my account was negative and told her that I was going to have some more fees by the time the check came and she then proceeded to tell me to go ahead and fax the new fees and balance on my account. She said they would reimburse my charges and the payment.

The new amounts of fees were a total of eight $30 fee and one $20 fee and one $2.00 fee. So, I continued to wait for my check as my checking account is getting worse and worse but I was told I would get it all back. Today, I called to see if the check had been mailed out and spoke to a floor manager who informed me that they did have a check for me but since my account was in the negative, they had to hold the check. I informed her that this made no sense to me, because HSBC Auto put me in the negative. I asked her how much the check was and she told me that it was for the payment only.

I asked her if there was another check because I was told by 2 different floor managers that I would be reimbursed for all of the fees that had accrued. She said the accounting department denied for me to get any fees back, because I gave permission for the payment. I then told her that I wanted to talk to someone from that department and she told me I wasn't allowed, that they didn't talk to the customers. I got very upset and demanded that I talk with someone else for whom a Jasmine ** got on the phone and basically told me the same thing.

I am very upset. I never gave them permission and my account is so messed up I had several fees and negative fees. I am very upset and disputing all the charges that have accrued. I also feel that HSBC Auto should pay for all the fees and payment since I never approved any extra payment.

OK, I love my house but getting our family into an ARM, did not know what that was at the time, that we could not afford when the payment jumps nearly $1,000 a month on the 3rd year seems like exactly the predatory lending practices I keep hearing about on the news. Not to mention now the screw up with the escrow. So here we stand in the faltering economy at the same time, my income went down 15% to avoid layoffs at work and my house payment went up by 20% and is now more than my entire income. I called 3 or 4 weeks ago to ask about the government plan with assistance for just my situation as our house, due to the market, is now worth $30,000+ less than what we owe. I was informed that HSBC is just not participating in the programs for help. But lucky me, they have a 90-day assistance that I could apply for.

While trying to get all the documentation together, another payment comes up. Day before the due date, I called HSBC and spoke with Roy. He said he could see the notes about my questions for loan modification and that I could, that day, qualify for a deferment since I had not done one in the past 12 months and the payment I made last was in the grace period. This was on 4/14/2009. On April 15 up to and including today, I am getting collections calls. Every single call we have answered, auto system says, "We have an important call for you. Please hold." Every single time I held and was disconnected after 60 seconds of dead air. We are talking multiple times a day to my house and my cell.

So today, I called and spoke with Alejandro who can't help me with my escrow problem and proceeded to tell me that there is no deferment on my mortgage and I don't qualify for one. I specifically asked Roy on the 14th if there was any chance this would not work and if so, to notify me. Alejandro apologized and the only way they could help me was to set up my next payment and proceed with the modification request, which even if it works only helps me for 90 days. We will see where that goes.

Then I got transferred to Ron. He's going to help me with my question on my escrow problem. I proceeded to tell him how they sent us a refund after overcharging, then basically reversed that, leaving us where we are now. He gave me all the information that I would need to try to get something done about it. Even so, my best outcome would only reduce the payment $140 or so. Unfortunately, his instructions did not come with any college scholarship to take calculus to even be able to understand what is going on!

Yesterday, the collection person I made the verbal authorization with told me it will most likely end up at an auction as the balance is so low and they may only be able to sell it for a mere 3 or 4 hundred dollars. Who in this world is there to help honest people when large companies make these plans to ** the people that pay their way through life? I do not feel I am being treated right at all and no one will step up for me.

It costs us $427.00 to get it out and we were not even behind any payments at this point. That was food out of my family's mouth. During the winter months, we had to accept food from a food drive. That money could have gone to our next truck payment, if anything. A day of work lost, when it's difficult to find work during these times.

HSBC said it was my fault for not calling to tell them that I had sent the payment. When my husband called, it said payment received. We thought everything was fine. Do they not check their records before taking someone's transportation?

Are they not harassing me, or can this be considered business as usual? Because frankly, even though my balance is $0.00, I'm considering getting rid of these morons! I'm in Canada by the way, so I'm not sure if the law pertains to my region, or if I have legal recourse if they call tomorrow or next. Can someone advise? I want to know if I have any legal way of forcing them to stop calling me because obviously they haven't gotten the message.

It's now Feb 7. and I just got both a statement and change of address confirmation. The statement is 3 days late! So it's past due again. I call and get stuck on hold. I transferred to a manager who threatens to drop my call and then sticks me on hold. Before he does so, I ask for his direct line in case he drops the call. He says it won't be dropped. Lo and behold, he picks back up after like 10 min on hold and drops the ** call as though I wasn't pissed off enough. I'm even more furious. I call back and deal with some other ** who takes my payment and supposedly closes my account and says I will have a paper confirmation in 7 days. This company is total **. They've screwed my credit score. It went from a 770 to a 555 because of them. They'll drop your call so they don't have to fix anything. Or they play dumb over the phone and don't fix anything. Either way, they're totally and completely awful. I would never ever recommend anyone to them ever!!!!

When two months went by and I had not heard from them, I became very concerned. I read the sales information they provided as well as the finance agreement, and then decided that they had had more than enough time to deliver on their obligations, that they had yet to deliver on. The time to begin making monthly payments on the $6,000 was fast approaching and the sites were neither set up nor making me any money. I called their corporate headquarters to let them know that I was cancelling the sales agreement, because they hadn't delivered on their end, and the monthly payments were too big for someone like me who was only a student.

In any case the law allows consumers ninety days in which to cancel the purchase, and I was within that time window. Their representative was very upset, and tried to get me to go through with the arrangement, but I flatly refused and sent them a notarized letter cancelling the purchase of their web sites. Well, as it turned out, they were not the ones who even set up the sites as commercial entities. They charged that responsibility to another company connected to HSBC Bank. They operate under their own rules and had their own finance agreement, as I'm about to explain.

After much aggravation, Stores Online finally acknowledged cancellation of the purchase, but they refused to return my $500.00 down payment, claiming that it was an administrative charge. However, they passed my name along to one of their crooked partners in crime who identified themselves as "The Tax Club". As I was to find out later on, this was just another front. Their business name was LGI Financial Services, but then they were merely an agent for HSBC Bank. In October of 2007, I received a call from them offering to set up the web sites as business entities in the state of Florida where I live for almost $2,500. They also claimed that they would teach me how to protect whatever assets I owned, in case I were ever sued.

I listened to what they said over the telephone, and they explained that they needed to fax or mail some documents for me to sign in order to complete the deal. When the documents arrived, I read them carefully. They said in essence that should I default on the payments for setting up the sites, they had the right to obtain a judgment against me, as well as some other stuff they failed to mention over the telephone. I promptly took all of their paperwork and tossed them into the trash. Then the next time they called, I told them that I didn't want any part of their business. There were subsequent phone calls from them where I asserted time and again that I wanted no part of their venture and that they shouldn't call anymore.

Afterwards, beginning in November, I started to receive letters from some company called LGI Financial Solutions claiming that my account was overdue, and that I needed to start sending them money on a monthly basis. I called their 800 number after about a month explaining that they must be mistaken after which they asked me to verify my name, address and the last four of my social security number. They insisted that I was the owner of the account and that I needed to send them money. I realized at this time that I was now the victim of identity theft and notified the State Attorney who directed me to file a report with the local sheriff. I explained to them what transpired and they had me call these people while they listened in on the conversation. They then took the telephone and identified themselves, and explained that they were conducting an investigation, whereupon the representative for this LGI agreed to send me an affidavit to fill out since I had not opened a credit card account, which they called a merchant account.

I checked my credit report and showed it to the officers which by then indicated that I owed HSBC Bank about $2,500.00. In the meantime, I received a letter from Stores Online acknowledging cancellation of the sales agreement for the websites which had never been set up. The letter had a clause in it stating that if I were to make a public statement disparaging them, they had the right to sue me for damages. Of course, I never signed the letter but kept it for use as evidence against them at a later time.

As for HSBC, they've continued to send me letters demanding money every so often, even though I have never opened an account or taken a loan from them. I once sent them a nasty letter telling them to perform an act of sexual intercourse on themselves, but more importantly, I challenged them to produce some form of document bearing my signature, in which I authorized anyone to set up an account in my name or where I took out some kind of loan, and if they could do so, then they were free to take me to court. They responded by turning it to a collections agency that was connected to a law firm. I explained to them what had happened as well as furnished all documentation proving what had taken place, and I never heard from them again.

I sent similar documentation to The Federal Trade Commission, from the first letter of invitation that I received from Stores Online to the affidavit from HSBC, along with a lengthy explanation of what happened. They sent a letter explaining that their office would not take any legal action on individual complaints; they only take action when a large number of people came together to take action, and that my claim was only an indicator of market trends. HSBC Bank refuses to settle in court, but continues to send letters demanding money and harassing me through collections agencies. They've even tried to take out a home equity loan against my property with another bank, but the loan wasn't approved. I found out about it after the bank sent me a letter informing me that they turned me down.

HSBC said they received my package on October 10 but on October 8, they put my loan in foreclosure. I don't really understand the reasoning for this. Carol has spoken with them, telling them the package was getting prepared, etc, to no avail. I just don't understand. I know I have an obligation to pay my monthly mortgage payment. I am behind, but I am trying to pay them as fast as I can. HSBC just refuses to work with me or my attorney. I thought lenders are supposed to be working with lendees?

I was appalled by his behavior and called back to speak to Reggie’s manager. All I got was a runaround and put on hold for so long and after they hung up on me AGAIN. I called back the third time and asked to be transferred to a manager and was told that I will have to wait until Monday to speak to any manager. HSBC customer service is horrible and they all need to be fired. They treat customers like crap and think they can get away with it.

Customer service, by the way, stinks. I called, sent 2 Bank Mails to close the acct and send a check. This never happens. I decided to physically go to a branch and do a withdrawal. The teller tells me I cannot WD because it's online savings, I need an ATM card, but HSBC never supplied one. She did tell me she can close it. OMG, I was so happy and got my (over $5k) check. So now, 2 days later, I just logged on to see what surprise there was. OH, by the way, last week at one point my account showed a balance of (-$6874), wherever that came from. So I did log on to find my account still opened with an interest balance of $7.57. So I called again and after being on hold, told me the account will be closed 10/20/08 and a check mailed to me. She then asked me if I wanted an ATM card. LOL. I do a lot of online banking with other banks. I never came close or even had a problem as with HSBC. After a month of aggravation, banking incompetence on their part, it's over.

Anyhow going further in the problem, this guy named Raed told me to sign some documents which I thought was a normal procedure. I asked Raed if there will be any late payment charges charged & he told me no there will be nothing charged & I will get the full payment that I requested for. But I knew about this as it’s a normal thing & I kept quiet as the other way round if there is no insurance charged or whatsoever charged it’s my benefit.

But it didn't happen this way. I was charged for insurance as well which resulted in more less amount. I was still fine with it. But before I could receive the Loan in my account I had to follow with so many peoples for it. Every one of them promised to call me back but they rarely used to call me back. It was something like I am the bank & they are the customers. If I called them then they used to say that they require this or that document. When the Loan transaction reached the last point, it took them more than 2 weeks to transfer them into my account. When I will ask them a reason they will be blank with no answer. When I call the office & I want to talk to the manager or a supervisor or a Team Leader I used to get only one reply "there is no one to assist as maybe they are on vacation or not in the office always." I turned up & went to another Manager for the main branch & it seemed a little help not much though.

Anyhow after all this headache for 1 month, I finally get the amount in my account. And today when I checked my account I had some amount missing when I checked it carefully it was HSBC who took their 1st installment payment. It’s like I received the loan on 7th October & by 12th October of the same month, my 1st instalment payment was deducted without my knowledge. I never informed HSBC when to deduct the amount from my account. And I was supposed to do something with that money where as now I have lost it & stolen by HSBC. When I tell them to refund it they again start telling me sorry & there will be no refund done as it’s according to the system.

Now tell me which customer can get satisfied like this. It seems HSBC only says to satisfy their customers but keeps it own way to satisfy itself. I think if I would have opened a account in my national bank it wouldn't have been such a hassle or taken such long time - plus I am sure that they will call back & keep their customer updated. Plus the funniest part, I try calling this sales person since morning from HSBC (Mr. **). His line goes on waiting since morning & by afternoon the line gets free & when I asked him why couldn't he answer my calls. He says he was busy talking to his girlfriend.

I never knew HSBC provides such sort of convenience to their staff at working hours as well. And believe me or not his real team leader Mr. ** & some other person Mr. ** never answered the phone, only story they made was they were busy in a meeting. Anyhow I am planning to finish my Loan from HSBC fast & going to go to some other bank where they can provide a better customer service. And nowadays I am requesting other peoples to avoid HSBC. And I hope my company stops their account with HSBC as it’s one of the biggest account holder in HSBC.

Everything was fine for a little while & then all the phone calls & letters started up again. Every time it's someone new who doesn’t seem to know the history of my account and I've had to go over it all again. Now my credit score has been adversely affected!!! Their latest letter/phone call states that I now owe over $4700 (the original purchase price was $4053). Please, help!

I find it hard to believe that HSBC would rather report this as a repo than to have the account paid in full. My request is that HSBC put in writing that this will not reflect as a repo on my credit history and that is was a debt satisfied by the borrower and closed. I do have someone that will loan me the money ($7,400.00) only if it is not reported as a repo on my credit. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

I cannot find an office in the US to go and discuss this, so I believe my last resort would be taking them to small claims court. I am not really sure of what my next step is, and would appreciate help. Also, when I try to discuss this with them they say they are going to come and repose the car. Once on the phone with one of their representatives in India, they are not sure what is going on and just pass us around to many different people. In their transaction history a payment I have made is missing? Not really sure why but I do have proof and it is not there.

In August, I received a phone call on my cell phone from HSBC informing me that the last two payments were not received and would I make an immediate payment. I was taken back a bit not quite recalling when I made the last payment. After logging online and checking my online bank statement, it was apparent that I had not made the July or August payments. I spoke to the Customer Service Representative in length trying to figure out why I was missing the email from HSBC with the payment reminder. I also told them at that point to cease sending email reminders and to send me paper statements going forward, which was not done until I called again 30 days later.

After reviewing my Inbox, Spam folder and deleted emails, I was able to determine that I have never? received any email reminders from HSBC from the time I requested to go paperless through today. I called my email provider and they suggested that HSBC send a test email so that we could try to determine why I wasnt receiving emails. Technical Support at HSBC said it was impossible. My email provider then suggested that someone from HSBC contact their Legal Dept to request verification that these emails were never received.

Again, HSBC Technical Support indicated that they would not do this and that it didnt matter if I didnt receive the email reminders or a paper copy of the bill, I am still responsible to make the payment on time when it was due and basically, it was just tough! Basically, they didn't need to send me a monthly notice.

I was then informed that late charges were incurred in July and August and that the promotion that I bought my television on was canceled and that I was now incurring all of the back finance charges from October 2007 through September 2008 (almost a year of finance charges at almost 22%). I pleaded with them to work with me and that I felt it was unfair that I was being penalized for something that wasnt completely my fault. Yes, I am responsible to make my payments on time, but HSBC also had a responsibility to send me a notice/reminder of when the payment is due. That was either never done or there is a computer glitch in their system! They didn't seem to care! I find it very odd that American Express emails each month with a reminder, but HSBCs emails regarding my Best Buy account dont. Sounds like a good way to assess late charges for missed payments! As an aside, HSBC has contacted me in the past via email (April 08) with regard to my Boscovs Charge so I know that their emails do come through on my email account.

Because the payment was late, it may hit my credit. I have also incurred monthly late charges for July and August and I also have been assessed all of the finance charges from when I made the purchase at a ridiculously inflated rate (I purchased the item at 36 months same as cash).

I called the premier relationship manager again and asked about the fee, it was reverted but I was told she can waive this fee for a total of three times (per year?). She also coax me into opening another account which will require $1500 min deposit, claiming that they no longer offer the free checking account anymore and of course possibly to avoid having this recurrent $50 monthly bank error charge. Of course with such fees if you do not contact them within 60 days you lose your money.

On my way to work, I went to Cupertino branch and was told that closing my bank account that day (walking out with a cashier check) will incur a $6 charge because I am not closing with the SF branch where the account was opened with. This is daylight robbery! Other things I hate about this bank is they see me as a prey to suck blood from. For example, I was asked to review some life insurance brochures and was called on my phone to switch to some other bank accounts, etc.

I was robbed of $6 bank fee. I end up having less money taken out from this bank account then the amount I originally had. Would have be better off burying the money in a hole in my backyard.

Then a couple of days later I logged onto my checking account and saw that later that day on September 8th payments the payments of $340 for the visa and mastercard had posted. I was stunned because it caused me to become overdrawn after I made a couple of other small transactions under the assumption I had the funds available. I called my credit union who confirmed that they did not receive the electronic debit from HSBC until 9/07/2008. That is nearly three weeks later. In the meantime because there were four individual transaction that caused me to be overdrawn from my checking account I received a $25 fee for each transaction for a total of $100 in overdrawn fees.

On September 16, 2008 I called Orchard Bank to pay back the funds my bank said Orchard bank (HSBC) should give bank. My credit union even offered to provide proof that funds were available up until September 8th had the electronic debts taken place in a timely fashion. Orchard bank said they were told the opposite but the electronic transfer did not come through to the credit union until 20 days after the requested pay date from Orchard (HSBC). Now the credit card company refuses to credit me back the $100 in fees I incurred because of their errors.

I became $100 overdrawn on my checking account which the credit card company refuses to return based on their error.

I am persuing full legal action now. They are trying to tell me they NEVER got, yet I have USPS receipts signed from the company rep. They are the most fraudulent company who has ever existed. DO NOT TOUCH THEM. They call anyone with a similiar name and give out all financial information, then they combined my ex father in laws credit card and mine, and kept his name on it because mine was under bankruptcy, this company has cost me $35000 to date in FRAUDULENT FEES!

I have ended up being treated for stress, on top of cancer from these [people]. Plus never know what is going on with my payments nor my house, day to day.

I told them I will NOT pay them to pay them on time and that I was told it was free to pay online. When the representative wouldn't help me to pay, and said if I mailed it they would add 30.00 late fee, I told her I was not going to pay anything at all anymore. I've owed them 300.00 for over a year because of all the fees and interest they keep putting on the account through their own fault. I'm sure I've more than paid them 30.00 in fees and interest. Can you advise what I should do next? What can they do to me? I don't trust them.

I plain out cannot afford this any longer, I try to work with them and they do what ever they can to keep being able to add bogus fees. I had to choose to feed my family and keep a roof over their heads or pay this to hsbc.

I had bill pay payments scheduled for 08/22/08 which are now late. I have no money because of their system errors. My rent and car payment are now late and I have no money for gas to get to work.

Several apologies and no result later, the UK and USA Phone team assured me that I could withdraw cash over the counter in the USA if all else failed. This is untrue in all 3 HSBC branches I tried in New York, not to mention the lack of branches in Seattle and Las Vegas. The mangers reported that I could not access my UK HSBC account from the USA.

The Phone team also assured me that transferred funds would be in my credit account in 3 days. Fine, I planned to pay my apartment bill and buy some food on friday but of course although my accounts are all very heathly and well in credit, I apparently have no funds available, besides my card doesn't work.

The phone team now tell me they have for some reason put a hold on my transfers until tuesday. friday to tuesday with no money and I have nothing but an apple in the fridge, how fitting. I am currently not enjoying this long planned and saved for, vacation and all i expect when i get back to the UK is a big phone bill, bank charges and more grief from this abominable company. I'm a calm person but HSBC has wasted my money, my work, my time and I have no expectations this will be resolved.

I lost time on my vacation which i spent in the HSBC bank. I lost money in phone bills calling the UK hotline which is NOT free. I'm sure I have bank charges waiting. I have no way of buying food or enjoying the events in New York and I have no way of paying for the apartment. Luckily i have a laptop and the internet.

We contacted Beneficial to have our loan covered by the unemployment insurance and we were told we would have to use the disability coverage. They have denied coverage for three different reasons. First they stated that our coverage was not effective until three months after the loan was taken out. When I produced documents showing our coverage began in October, 2005 they changed tactics. Now they were saying that my husband's disability was a pre-existing condition.

When I gave them the SSI judgment stating that the disability began in November 2005, as well as numerous doctor reports, they changed tactics again. Now they are stating that according to their specialists, my husband is not disabled. Apparently our doctors and the US Govt. are wrong and Beneficial is all-knowing. I refuse to pay this loan and I am demanding they honor the coverage we paid for. They have given us the complete runaround and now the tab is well over $10,000 dollars.

I have contacted the Attorney General and the American Insurance Board and hopefully some resolution can be made. Our credit is severely damaged and they have caused alot of stress for my family. They call my house endlessly and I'm thinking of filing harassment charges.

It has been 6 weeks and after 3 calls there is no response of check for the refund. My demands now are falling on deaf ears. Now the mortgage officer tells me it is with the accounting department, everytime I ask they say it is with the accounting department. I am frustrated and have no options left, feel cheated. Pending Refund fee of $325, and the Psychological stress of dealing with the rude and uncourteuos response from Mr. Keith L. on the matter.

I need to make a follow-up phone call to their customer service to make sure that the money isd applied to principal, they usually assure me that it will be done, however the story always repeat itself. For example: on June 08, 2008 HSBC received a check for S2000.00, which was marked principal reduction, and instead they applied the money towards my monthly payment that was due only on August 1, 2008. After 2 phone calls they finally reversed that payment and applied the $2000.00 towards the principal, but only on June 23, 2008.

I find this practice predatory and dishonest at least-the bank held my $2000.00 for 15 days, when I could still have that money on MY savings account and I would get 3.5% yeld from the $2000.00. Again, two payments were received by HSBC to be applied towards the principal -one for $500.00 on 08/11/08, and another for $750.00 on 08/08/08, again HSBC held the money without applying the money to the principal.

I am paid about $54.00 per hour at my day job, and I have to spend time calling HSBC Mortgage Corporation instead of working. Each telephone call takes at least 30 min.- I wish I could bill HSBC for the time lost. However, there is a bigger issue here: HSBC effectively prevents my from paying my mortgage off earlier which I have the right to do, so HSBC does not follow their contract with me.

When I called they stated to me that I was delinquent in my payments and demanded immediate payment. I explained that I had been paying twice the required amount for over a year and couldnt see how this could be. Her explanation was that in Sept of last year a payment arrived late which attached a $39 change. Which I didnt pay. Well that change went unpaid to this day. So they bumped me to 21.9% and I know owe $529 in finance charges and more on my motorcycle that I did when I bought it. This is horrible!

I am horribly upside down in a bike that I have made twice the monthly payments on for nearly 2 years.

There was no notice sent so all the months I was paying only half the amount due. I paid the money due under protest and tried to get them to lower the rate and monthly payment, The rep. sounding more like a robot every minute kept saying, That's our policy. I explained that the increased payment was not in my budget and asked again if they could lower the payment. One guess what the parrot said.

Of course I tried to stay current and long story short the vehicle was repo'd. I owed $11,000 (the original price) on the bkie because even though I made payments for two years the fees and interest did nothing to the balance. In fact I believe it actually increased. That's some scam! Has to be some sort of unfair credit practices going on there.

My only recourse was to pay off the entire balance. They would not accept any other payment. I averted their evil plan to sell the bike, force me to pay repo fees, storage fees and the balance and end up paying nearly the same price for the bike without actually having it. I hope karma is real. If there is a ray of light...the repo guys were really nice.

repo, credit destruction, embarrassment, depression, despondency, stress, and all around genrally hurt feelings.

I have not lost my house that I had purchased in May of 2000. lost my husband in Jan of 2004 and had difficulity and so refianced and boy was that the bigest mistake of my life. I had sepsis one year ago this past jan. and must purchase with my insurance $ 398.00 medications per month. to buy my medications, pay one credit card and the mortage it took half of my take home pay, there was not way I could live like that. I had not enough money to buy gas for car or pay my ulities or groceries.

I hope that they can find a buyer, I really really doubt that it will be $123,000. I wonder who sets their guide lines? The best thing I can say to you all. Is NEVER NEVER USE Beneficial HSBC. They will take you for everything you own. they have my home now. I hope they enjoy wrecking people's lives, they sure did mine.

I have lost my house and had to file bankruptcy. At the age of 53.

I called HSBC asking if there was any way they could lower the 27.99% interest rate because this was creating a serious financial burden. The rep said they could lower it to 24.99%, and acted like I should be grateful. When I asked if that was the best they could do, the rep said yes.

Come on now, I've heard of folks calling up credit card companies and getting them to reduce interest rates by as much as 10%. As soon as I get this card paid off, I will never do business with HSBC again.

They continuely call non stop about 3-7 times a day, and working third shift this is a neusence. They refuse to change my name on the acct, as I have been married for several years. I can not get through any time I try, and if I do the person barley speaks English and pretends he can not understand me. I have had to cancel checking accts because they were taking payments out I never autherized causing things to bounce. I have lost sleep on this, and am now even on depression medications.

But lo and behold, it was a day late and they slapped another late fee on me. When I called to talk to a supervisor, he went on to tell me that I needed to send my payments from another mailbox b/c maybe it wasn't getting picked up on time. (Let me note here that we have other bills that we sent from the same mailbox and they were going across the US and those bills managed to make it on time) I have called the FTC to complain as well as the Office of Controller of Currency.

I am fighting another battle in regards. I purchased a flat screen, Sony LCD Panel T.V. brand new. Got an amazing price of 1100 and some change dollars with a gift card 50.00 bucks and no interest for 2 yrs. Well, that is what I did for one year, as I saved up the money to pay it off by the second year. I noticed the bill starting saying the contract and interest would end as of May 2008. As the months grew closer, I would contact Best Buy and they would assure me that the account was in good standing and I was making the low monthly payments of 10 dollars. When May rolled around, I was slapped with a 400 and some change dollar interest fee.

I called ASAP, and was transfered to some foreign country and could not get through to anyone. I explained the situation and they still could not help me. I called back again, and again again. This went on for a month. I couldnt take it anymore. Hiding at work to call them on lunch breaks, etc. Then had my boyfriend call, they gave him all my information and said an Account Manager would call me. Nice privacy act!

They told him to tell me that I was in good standing and to hold off on payment because they would transfer my file to another department. I got private incoming calls for awhile and would answer then get hung up on. It was like a recording. I finally paid 141.00 dollars to have them stop calling. I dont know what to do. I have a bill that was 800 and some dollars three months ago and now its 1500 dollars. I have been slapped with late fees as well. This T.V. cost less than that. How does that happen? Please help!

Late Fees! Interest Charges, I offered to pay it all off, without interest and late fees, they never called back!

On 5th August , I realised that the remitance hadnt gone through nor i had received Rs 2 L that was deposited. I spent one entire day talking to customer servce of HSBC to get the complaina cross and askign them for resolutions. Nothing Happened. Funds did not hit my account on 5th as well. on 6th I had no choice but to leave office and visit the branch where i had deposited the cheque and submitted remitance application to investigate what's happening. & asking them to ensure that remitance reaches US by 6th August. The US remitance got delayed by 1 week and could not honour a commitment that i had given to somebody in US only because HSBC had their technical screw up. I had to take leave from office and be on phone calls for two days to figure out and resolve this issue

We were unaware of this discrepancy until a collection agent called on behalf of Best Buy claiming we were late on makeing payments and we owed Best Buy $1600.00 in deferred interest which is now being compounded daily at a 28% interest rate. That is more than 50% of my original purchase! Best Buy refuses to even speak to us referring us to their financing company, Household Bank.

Household Bank asked that we send them a fax explaining the situation and they would look into it. The fax remained unanswered for several weeks and we are now being told by Household Bank that it will take at least two billing cycles for this to be resolved. Household Bank initially offered to reduce the amount by half now the offer is 40% if we agree to pay the balance. This seems to be a huge penalty for $125.00 Can someone help?

The rep. proceeded to persist in us getting additional disability coverage. We were already taking out a higher loan and did not want to pay additional coverage. She finally convinced us that the disability coverage was a responsible decision. My husband was going back to work with a job he had held for 8 yrs. in the electronics field. We received the $7500 check in the beginning of October 2005. My husband was already back at work and we were more than able to make the monthly payments plus the additonal disability coverage. We made our payments for several months and in December 2005 my husband lost his job because he was exhibiting signs of serious mental impairment. He was losing his hearing and his short term memory and thought processing was causing him great difficulty. He worked several months after the loan was taken out and all seemed to be going well. We have seen several doctors and they all have different opinions as how this impairment seemed to manifest overnight.

Well I contacted Beneficial to let them know my husband had lost his job and we would like to have the loan paid off with the disability coverage we had been paying on. We were given the complete runaround. They have denied our claim on three separate occasions for three different reasons. In August 2007 we finally were approved for disability through the government and in the judgment it states that my husband's disability began on or around November 2005. I have submitted that paperwork to Beneficial only to be told that their standards for disability are different than the government's standards. I haved mailed and faxed every conceivable document from doctor's and the government which prove my husband is disabled, to no avail.

Beneficial first denied the claim stating that the coverage only kicks in after 3 months of the loan being taken out. When I contacted my brother who works in the insurance field, I was informed that legally once the company receives payment that is when coverage begins. When I informed Beneficial of my knowledge they switched tactics and denied his coverage stating it was a pre-existing condition. When I sent paperwork to prove he went back to work after the loan was taken out and also the doctor's paperwork stating that the condition's onset was at the end of November, they switched tactics again. Now they are stating that according to their medical staff my husband isn't disabled. It appears the US government and all our doctors are wrong and Beneficial is all-knowing. They basically are acting like we took out this loan and had plotted out this disability as a scam not to pay back the loan.

First off we never wanted a $7500 loan and we had to be pushed into getting the disability coverage. Secondly my husband would not leave a job he held for 8 years (which he went to school for) with great pay and benefits, just to avoid paying a $7500 loan. The loan is in my husband's name, but due to his mental difficulties I am Power of Attorney and I am the one who has received an ulcer from all the worrying about this situation and other difficulties that arise from having a disabled spouse.

I have spoken repeatedly with Beneficial and they said the best they could due was lower our monthly payments and extend the length of the loan. I said "ABSOLUTELY NOT"! I paid for disability coverage and I expect you to honor that. They have sent me to collections, lawyers, etc. The bill is now a whopping $10,199 dollars. I have no idea what their next step is going to be, but I refuse to pay. I am going to take every step possible to make them honor the coverage I paid for. If anyone has some advice as how to proceed I would really appreciate it.

I was diagnosed with an ulcer 5 months ago and have been informed it is stress related. Our credit rating has plummeted to an all time low. We are continually harassed by agents of Beneficial. Three to four phone calls a day. Nasty, rude inconsistent conversations with these people who are basically calling my husband and I deadbeats. My husband has very serious ailments he has to deal with and Beneficials treatment of us, during these difficult times, is unbelievable.

However, I believe they absolutely crossed the line when we made a couple of extra lump sum payments. I have the bank statments since the inception of the loan showing that payments were made on or before the 10th of each month. They are automatically set up to do that. In addition we had an extra amount deducted for escrow and $50 more to be applied to the principle. I wanted to bring this loan down ASAP because we were considering some land that will be on auction this fall. It was important to us.

November 19, 2007 we sent a lump sum payment from our bank for $15,000. The check was sent through the bill payment process, had our acct number on it and noted "apply to principle". Their statement dated 12/15/07. Shows a lump sum of $14,000 applied to the principle, with the additional thousand being added like an additional payment. Thus it was divided up giving them $650.70 in interest, $131.24 was used toward the principle and $218.06 put in escrow. It seemed so crazy I got a copy of the draft showing the check was cashed to make sure it was sent for 15 not 14 thousand. I'd call on this and fax things to the research dept. (this is a "nonperson" department and apparently fax is the only way to contact them. The faxes were just lost or at best partially answered questions. Finally at one point a customer service person saw the problem and promised shed take care of it but it would take a few days. I watched online to see the big mess start.

They backed out all my premiums and put them in some additional products account and every day we would get calls asking when were could make the payments they were in a position to start foreclosure. This went on for quite some but just call me stupid, I thought it was a fluke and I did it again. We received some money around Christmas it was burning a hole in our pocket so we thought we'd put it towards the house so we didn't just blow it. Guess what, "they don't look at the checks that come in, a machine does that." This was for $2,900 and put in holding while interest accrued on the principle.

In March of 2008 I finally contacted the Dept of Banking. Even if what they do as far as holding payments in their "additional products" accounts is legal, it sure isn't very nice. I am at my wits end. My mom (age 90) lived with us until she died in Sept 2007. When she was alive she took quite of bit of care and I just didn't have time or energy to be checking our mortgage account nor did I think we needed to..now I realize they have set their programming to automatically apply extra lumpsum payments to future loan payments so they can continue to gain their longterm interest. The Dept of Banking really didn't do anything but forward my letters to HSBC (and Hs bc should have had that information since I went to them directly at first. Since March 08, the Dept asked HSBC to send a complete payment history to them for this account.

To date I still have not received this. They sent a copy of the payment history on the loan that was closed in March 2007, but never for the new loan because it's apparently hard to back out payments. We made a decision that we should be able to see an accurate statement or payment history. We cancelled our escrow account and asked that this money be applied to the principle. We received a form letter that stated the check would come in the mail, Actually they applied to the principle, but I can't believe they won't even adjust the form letters that go out. They keep sending it over and over like to say "see we did the right thing."

Recently there was a -1090.30 showing in escrow. John Munn with the Dept of Insurance contacted HSBC and they explained to him the escrow appeared incorrect because they were backing out premiums when we just happened to cancel escrow! I feel like it's been turned back on me. I told my husband I didn't want to make a payment until we got a correct statement with a legitimate balance. We haven't had this since October 2007. John M. Dept of banking called and said HSBC was finally trying to put together a payment history, but they were concerned because we didn't make the July 2008 payment and it may look bad on our credit history for that month. We have been having HSBC people call about payments for months.

Our payments have always been current! But since we wanted the lump sum payment applied to the principle alone we got thrown into a system we don't belong in. We received letters from HUD stating HSBC let them know we had financial issues. The local bank said they'd refinance with us. We asked about the prepayment penalty. There is a 36 month prepayment penalty plus we need to pay for another appraisal and the cost of refinance. John asked them if they could consider waiving that penalty just to get us off their backs but they said they don't have anything to do with that it was their investors that set up the terms. We'd have to send a letter to whomever (probably research) along with the copy of the HUD settlement statement from the new bank and a reason we feel it should be waived. There's no guarantee that it would be waived. I am so angry.

We did contact an attorney and he said that if we could find several people that had payments misapplied they could consider a civil action suit or something like that. While searching for other "victims" I found your site. I would be happy to copy or scan all the payments we made and the statements or transaction histories to help clarify what happened. Since it may be in our best interest just to pay up and keep this loan I thought about sending another lump sum payment a few months from now just to see them do it again. We can't be the only one this has happened to. I mentioned that to Mr. M. and he said HSBC told him that this is very unusual because people don't usually send in extra payments.

For being the largest company in the world and most of the christian financial advisors tell people to pay off their homes, I bet there are a lot of people this happens to. I never watched the account much when mom was alive because I was busy. I wonder how long this was going in. If I do find someone else with an HSBC mortgage would I be able help them with a extra payment towards the principle to verify that HSBC uses money marked "apply to principle" to future payments, keeping their interest? (to rip people off?) Or would that be something like entrapment? Since it happened to us twice, I don't think it's just a fluke. Thank you for reading this.

I was forced to pay the interest. This practice is DECEPTIVE . THE CREDIT CARD COMPANIES ARE OUT OF CONTROL. PLEASE HELP CHANGE THE LAWS GOVERNING THEM.

This has only happened to me with this bank, not any of the several others I pay. They have a real scam going. I filed a complaint against them today with the Federal Trade Commission. I ENCOURAGE EVERYONE WITH A SIMILAR PROBLEM TO CALL THE FTC. Let's not let them keep doing this to others.

Now, while trying to resolve the issue for more than 6 months Best Buy has me in a LOOP of doing things that are ridiculous and I have done everything they asked to prove my innocence in this case. Now they want me to start the entire process again. All the while the fraudulent account on my credit has caused my business that relies on minimal open accounts has almost completely failed. 6 MONTHS LATER HSBC is proving they care nothing about fraudulent activity or do they care to try and resolve issues professionally.

As an honest business owner and employee of a US corporation I can't sit and let the criminals at Best Buy ravage my life and business with their false claims and refusal to act as a professional business. I need help from all respectable organizations to help prevent HSBC from destroying the lives of others.

Bad stress and the need for prescription drugs. Failure of my business that relies on my good credit with no open accounts. My good name and honest reputation.

When I called about the fee that will be coming up next month I was told that it would not be reduced or waived, I spoke to two people the first time I called and three the second time. The last person I spoke to was Regina an account executive manager to see if I could get an increase on my other card to transfer the balance and close the card so that I would not have to pay the outrageous $80 fee for a $550 credit card. They were going to have to pull my credit so I told them never mind. I am trying to pay off my high interest cards and my credit score is already low enough. I don't need to get dinged anymore.

Paying this card off now is keeping me from using the $540 to pay off another credit card that keeps charging me $39 over the limit fee every month for the last 6 month because the interest rate of 24.99% is pushing me over the limit with paying only the minimum payment the interest keeps adding on along with the fee every month and the balance isn't going down. And I will probably have to cancel our family vacation.

I don't have money to throw away on unnessary fees.

After few days when I saw my statement, I found to my surprise that the amount I had keyed in that machine was debited from my account (despite me receiving no money). When I complained to HSBC about this, they did some enquiry and came back to me saying that they had contacted the other bank and no irregularities were found (in effect saying that I was lying to them). The enquiry was a shame and their response was even more shambolic. Worse, it means that I am liable to fall prey to such cheatings/fraud committed by the banks in future as well. They can just say... our records show no irregularities. The irony is that as a consumer, I can't provide any evidence showing that the cash was really not disbursed.

the entire process of complaining and the enquiry team was a pain with no transparency whatsoever. Nobody knows whether any such enquiry took place. There is no clarity about how to address such grievances. There is no guarantee about such things not happening in future. Shame on HSBC and Washington Mutual

When I called HSBC customer service, I spoke with Customer Service Representative ID#ZYV. She informed me that I had NOT mailed the check..that she didn't know where the check was...that it was their word against mine...and I had better make a payment or the account would be flagged as delinquent. Extremely insulting, extremely demeaning....almost mocking me. This has happened each and every time we have contacted their customer service department. Due to the checks being lost, we have also had to pay a $30 stop-payment fee with our bank to make sure the checks were voided. This has been a HUGE inconvenience for us...and even more frustrating to be verbally insulted and called a liar by HSBC.

We have had to pay $60 total to stop payments on the checks that they claim they never received. We were forced to make our payments online approximately two days before the due date due to the check never showing up. Because we were so close to the due-date and they have a three day processing time, we were charged $15 per transaction to make our payment. I will never...NEVER...do business with these in the future..and will make sure I file complaints with everyone I'm able to so that others won't have to endure this type of inconvenience.

Since then I have mailed my payments on the 30th-1st of every month. my payments are due on the 7th of every month and only live 75 miles away. Now my payments are posted after my due date, I then called HSBC back and informed them of this discrepency, they stated they post my payments when the receive them, I asked my postal carrier about the time and they informed me the area to which this letter is sent to takes only 3 days max.

Now HSBC has lost my payments and are now harrassing me for the payments I contacted my bank WA MU they informed me that the check has not been cashed so now I placed a stop payment on the Offical Bank Check and informed HSBC by phone, fax and by mail the situation, involving the bank check, I continue to get harrassing telephone calls If there customer service representative would only read the notes and information that was provided to them from and WA MU bank. I am ready to file a grievence against HSBC.

I canceled both the transactions on 25th May 2008 as the sellers account did not exist. I received two refunds of Rs1876.98. They said they will not refund the currency conversion charges of 3.5%. If you calculate 3.5% of Rs1876.98 (amount refunded) you get Rs.65.70. That means I should have been charged Rs1876.98 + Rs65.70= Rs1942.68 (Total Rs1942.68 X 2 = Rs3885.36) since I paid for the amount twice. Why are [they] charging me Rs1996.89 instead of Rs1942.68 what are the hidden charges [they] are levying on me? No one is giving a logical answer. Customer care say dollar fluctuates.

I have spoken to them for more than hours on my phone, sent emails on 20th June 2008 on receiving the statement but no reply. When I paid on 24th May 2008 I was charged Rs1996.89 and when I paid & received a refund on the 25th May 2008 I was also charged Rs1996.89 then cannot say the difference is due the fluctuation in the dollar. Why the refunds are less? The issue is not the amount but I have been using credit card regularly to make international transactions & this is the first time I have found out the hidden charges which you are charging me. I have always trusted the reply I have received from customer care executives & today I feel cheated & betrayed.

I must have spent at least at least 200-300 dollars in the past but since I never had a break up so I was unable to calculate the charges. I was about to make payment when I found these hidden charges Please investigate into matter immediately. I will not be responsible for the late payment till the matter is resolved. I have contacted you well in advance before the due date through phone & email. mental harressment torture. Finacial cheating. Problem still not resolved

I went back to the bank on June 6, 2008 and the teller told me that thje funds have been verified and that the funds are available. I withdrew 90% ($3,060.00)cash and send it via western union to china. On June 10th, I went back to the bank to withdraw a some cash for myself and to my surprise I saw that my account is overdrawn by $2,996.15 . When I inquired as to how that was possible, the bank manager told me that the money grams were not legitimate and that it was up to me to verify if those money grams were not legitimate. I told the manager that the only way I could have verified these funds was through my bank and that is why I have waited 4 days for the bank to clear them. i told them that once the bank clears any check, it meant that the bank has already verified the legitimacy of the funds since when i went to the bank 2 days after i had deposited the money grams, the teller told me that it would require another 2 business days for the money to clear.

Now on June 6th, when they told me that the money was there and that they gave me more than 3000.00; I automatically assumed that I was dealing with a legitimate company and therefore, I sent the money to china. The bank manager told me that she empathize with me however, there is nothing that I can do and that they are not responsible to verify funds and the responsibility is ultimately mine not their's. When I asked them then isn't the 4 day hold is for verification purposes so that the bank can receive the money from the the other bank, they told me that I should have known better and that i should not have trusted these people. They are refusing to take any action against the other bank and have continuously harrasing me to deposit $3000.00 to bring my account up to date and not only that, they are charging m,e $35 a week for having an over drawn balance. i really don't know who to turn to.

I am just an individual and have no means of fighting with such giant as HSBC bank and they are aware of that. I also called in the 800 number customer service and they told me the same thing. They mentioned that if i think that I can go against them in a court of law, i am more than welcome to pursue it legally, but, they also mentioned that they have a team of lawyers that deals with people like me. they somehow treated me as some one whose intention were not honorable and no matter how much I pleaded, they gave me the run around and finally, they told me if you can go against us, go ahead. I am really desperate.

The only reason I agreed to participate in this transaction was that since I am out of a job, I needed cash and they seemed like a legitimate company. I have no one else to turn to other that consumer affairs. They are taking advantage of my inability to pursue them legally since they are aware of my financial status. i would enormously appreciate it if you can advise me as to what to do what options do I have.

To this date, I have not received any correspondence from HSBC in regards to my payments. I have received numerous calls daily from a Ms. Ricks from the collection agency, who told me that HSBC does not ever have to send me any statements regarding my balance and that my payments do not include interest and fees. The promissory not does not state this. She also states that setting up payments through them will prevent HSBC from filing legal action against me. My original loan was an adjustable rate loan.

Why is it that they do not have to send my monthly statements informing me of my balance, and why is it that I never received a notice that I was about to be placed in collections? The collections agency wants me to give my account information via telephone so that they can set up a monthly draft from my checking account, but I am hesitant about giving my account information via telephone to these people. I am in the process of trying to contact HSBC's collections department to try and find out what is really going on. I am so confused about this whole situation.

To date (6/29/08), this is the only negative posting to my credit report. I am pregnant, and the thought of being sued is stressing.

Mainly, Identy Thief. Also, due to both of our health situations, this could hurt us financially. We have continued to maintain perfect credit. Finally, if our name gets out, We are afraid of being BLACK BALLED by the credit card companies.

My credit score has plummeted, and it is a negative effect on my credit

Lost my home due to forclosure. I notified them months before when I was having difficulty with the payment going up 500.00 or more a month. I spoke to many people for a workout loan to no avail. They would say one thing and not do anything. Why should they? The home went down 200,000. I guess they don't care how much money they lose. They are not capable.

Then also they added fine on me and now again message is coming saying Pay Rs 2619. can any body Tell me Y? And I have not recieved any statement for 1 Years and due to this I am paying on Minimum due as Even I dont know where i have spent this amount. Really this Customer Care is very non Help full.

I dont know how much money I have payed to them. They are asking for more

While the costs go up on this file and the value continues to decline rapidly in the location of this home, Mr. Ross continues to ignore my communications. On May 29th, 2008 Mr. Ross sent a letter to my customer stating that the owners request for a short sale has been denied because the owner would not agree to obligate himself to a promissory note for any part of the delinquency. A short sale is about selling the property for less than what is owed. If the owner were in a financial position to obligate him to additional debt he wouldnt be seeking a short sale. Now this letter was not clear as to the entire short sale was denied or the current offer for short sale was denied.

I have requested a better interpretation of this letter. My messages to Mr. Ross is being ignored. It appears to me that HSBCs lack of incopendence and Mr. Ross unprofessionalism to negotiate could result in avoidable foreclosure. I may need to also mention that the Loss Mitigation department needs to be educated in better customer relations.

By the time this transaction potentially could result in a short sale, HSBC bill have lost thousands of dollars more due to Orlandos rapidly declining market, the location of the property and their increasing costs on the file. I have produce recent sales and active listing since the appraisal to Mr. Ross showing him what our market is currently doing so he could be well aware that the offer is fair. It just does't make economical since.

I called the 1-800 number on the ATM machine and was met by one of the RUDEST people I have ever met from a service department and was told that nothing could be done about it except to contact my bank NOW. I now had a car that I could not get out of parking because HSBC had ripped me off of over 400 dollars! I had to call my own bank to ask them to increase my cash withdrawal limit so I could get money to pay for my parking . . after about 24 hours of being awake HSBC told me to contact my bank when I got home, which I did.

AND EVEN with documentary PROOF that the machine had not dispensed my cash . . . they denied my claim! I am a college student, and I cannot afford to lose 400 cash! I am also a U.S. citizen attending school in Canada and so HSBC assumed that I would not complain OR that they could fight their OWN error as I was across a border! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!

I have spent serval days trying to recoup my money that HSBC denies they took from me. I could have spent this time writing my thesis! As weel, the anger that is involved by being ripped off from one's own country is appalling!