I made two seperate transactions to take advantage of a "no interest" promotion for a furniture purchase and an electronics purchase at two different retailers.

The accounts were payable to HSBC Retail Services. I set up my monthly payments accordingly so that the balance of the purchases would be paid off by the end of the promotion date.

With 3 payments left on one of the purchases HSBC started refunding my payments back to my checking account without my knowledge and for no reason.

When my last statement arrived, I noticed that the finance charges had been charged to my account and I started to investigate this with my bank. They determined that 3 months of payments had been refunded to my account, but not until the last month of the promotion and there was no reason offered by HSBC.

I am now disputing the finance charges and have sent them the refunded payments they sent me, but they want copies of everything from my bank and a letter explaining the "situation". This will probably take another couple months to settle with them since I cannot fax any of the paperwork from my bank, it all has to be sent through the USPS, (snail mail).

The second account I have with them just assessed me with a late fee of $29.00. This too, was a "no interest" promotion and I had the payments set up automatically with my financial institution's online Bill Payer as with the first account.

HSBC claims that I need to set the payments up for a payment date 11 days before the due date in order for them to receive it on time - what is the sense of using electronic payments when you have to give the creditor your money 11 days ahead of time??? I thought electronic payments were supposed to go much quicker hence the reason for using it...

This company is DISHONEST AND DIFFICULT to work with. I am paying both of the accounts off immediately and will never purchase anything that has to be paid through HSBC RETAIL SERVICES.

these people are scam artists, i will never use them again, i wont go into my long story, because its similiar to everyones stories, all scams, people should form agroup and stand up to these credit card
companies, they hide all there crap in small print, hell i cant hardly read it with reading glasses on.
we need to stop talking about it and start a large law suit, i also think think all credit card companies
should have there small print made into large bold letters, and what natioanality these card are
owned by, i want my money im spending and interest to stay in usa, how do we know these
companies are not owned by some foreign company, that we dont want to deal with, this should be
on the front of there statements, big bold letters, usa company or whatever

Bought my motorcycle Oct 3,2007 then received a phone call on Nov 6th saying payment was late. Found out it was due on Oct 25th. Make an immediate payment the next day and they agree to drop late charge. Make another one on Nov 14th and and it arrives via my online bank's bill pay system ontime but it's not processed until after the due date. I get another phone call around Dec 10th saying that payment was late and so was the one that was due on Oct 25th. I disagree and told them I will give them back the motorcycle if this continues. I make another payment for Dec 25th payment it arrives Dec 22. It's late too. No matter when you send it and how early it gets there, it's always late. I guess they think I must be mailing this through the USPS and cannot prove arrival date. Thank GOD for online banking. I can't wait for them to keep this up so I can go forth with legal action.

The U.S. government should investigate the unfair business practices of HSBC Retail Services. Simply put - they are extortionists. Our son took out a loan for a Kawasaki ATV through HSBC - my husband co-signed for him. Unfortunately, our son missed several payments. When it became known to us, we "took over" the loan in order to save our credit.


We contacted HSBC on three separate occasions and told them the situation. We requested an account history, change of address and payment book - so we could send in the payment. HSBC ignored us. Finance charges and late fees continued to add up.

Finally, we tried to make a check payment by phone through one of their representatives. HSBC charges $15.00 for this service. HSBC then submitted the account number to our bank (one number short - of course) - the check was "returned" and HSBC tacked on another $25.00 for returned check fee - and an additional $35.00 late fee. The transaction their representative walked my wife through cost us $75.00 in their fees - and it ended up that our account was still unpaid and incurring finance charges at the rate of 21.80%

It took us three full months to finally get the address changed and statement of payments. The first two phone calls you think it was just a slip-up, but after 6 - then 8 phone calls - in addition to two letters sent - you realize - they are doing this on purpose to squeeze more money out of you. NO ONE can be THAT inept. I fully believe their representatives are trained to string you along - ignore your letters - mess up your account numbers, etc. in the ultimate goal of charging you ridiculous fees.

No wonder, after a year and a half, the balance due is MORE than the original loan was. BEWARE of HSBC - and someone - please help put a STOP to these extortionists!

Kim K. Sutton
Paulding, OH

I have a Best Buy card through HSBC that I have been paying on for 3 years now. I usually pay double what is owed every month. With very little exception, I have paid on time. December of 2005 I switched back from sending checks to electronic payment through my bank. My minimum payment of $19.00 was due on 12/03/05. They state they did not receive my payment until 12/08/05 (I believe they received it, they just did not process). They charged me a late fee of $29.00.

For the sake of argument, lets just say that the fee WAS correctly applied. My next due date was 01/02/06. The total due (because of the late fee) was $53. The payment that they received on 12/08/06 was for $50. I sent another payment that they received on 12/28/06 for $43.44 which brings the total received to $93.44 when only $53 was owed.

They charged me a late fee on 01/02/06, even though they received $40.44 more than they state I owed them! During this time I was unable to receive mail so I did not immediately catch their mistake. I simply kept making payments. My monthly payment should have been $19.00 each month. My next due date was 02/02/06, and should have rightfully been a $19.00 payment. They received $40.00 on 01/19/06. Yet again, they charged me a $29.00 late fee.

I paid them double what was rightfully owed every single month, but they kept tacking on a late fee every month! Now, by the time I have fully realized THEIR mistake, my "minimum" balance due is around $200! I have paid them over $280 in the last 6 months, and my balance has actually INCREASED!

I wrote to HSBC and explained the situation, gave them the dates and amounts paid (which was taken from THEIR statements once I was able to check them online) I received 3 letters back from HSBC.

The first letter stated that my account was billed approximately the 8th of the month. Ok, thanks for that. The second letter stated "We are unable to honor your request for a late fee waiver at this time. The total minimum payment is due on or before the payment due date appearing on your billing statement". No kidding, and you received $40.44 MORE THAN THE MINIMUM and STILL charged a late fee.

The third letter stated "We are unable to comply with your request to delete certain information from your credit report. HSBC reports information that relates to the actual credit experiences we have had with our customers". Baloney. They are trashing my credit because of their mistake. Even in the face of absolute proof, they refuse to correct their mistake.

This company needs to go away.