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  • Report:  #403634

Complaint Review: HSBC Bank Nevada - City Of Industry California

Reported By:
- Anytown, Pennsylvania,
Submitted:
Updated:

HSBC Bank Nevada
PO Box 60177 City Of Industry, 91716-0177 California, U.S.A.
Web:
N/A
Categories:
Tell us has your experience with this business or person been good? What's this?
My credit is excellent, so when I received HSBC's credit card offer, the APR was good enough I accepted it. What a horrible mistake!

When I received the HSBC MasterCard from HSBC Bank in Nevada, the APR rate was 14.45%. I

immediately registered my card on their site at http://www.hsbccreditcard.com/ and set up

prescheduled, recurring payments, the amount of which would always exceed any minumum

monthly charge. At the same time, I requested a confirmation when each payment had posted.

The payments were scheduled for the first of every month to insure they would never be late

as my credit profile is extremely important to me. It is so important that, in fact, that

since beginning to establish my credit, not one payment to any creditor or any utility has ever been even one day past due for the past eight years. Not one. Ever. Until now.

HSBC debited every payment from my checking account on the prescheduled dates for July,

August, September, and October of 2008, and each payment was acknowledged via email. In

November, however, I received no acknowledgement so after a few days, I went to the site to

make sure the payment had posted. It had not.

Not only had they failed to debit the recurring payment, but the payment was now one day

past due so I contacted them via their site, as per their instructions, to inquire why the

payment had not been debited. I received no response to that inquiry.

Two days later, I received an email alert that not only was my payment past due, but the fee for the past due payment had sent my balance over limit and because of that, my finance charge might be increased.

I paid the payment manually with the late charge the same day I received the alert and waited until the December first payment to see if it might not be automatically debited. To be sure the payment would be on time, I set up a payment through my own bill paying service for the same amount and for the same date.

BOTH payments were debited, posted, and my balance did not decrease whatsoever. They had increased the APR to 29.95%.

On December first, on their site, I disputed November's transaction thoroughly explaining it was their site's mistake, not mine, and requesting a refund of the late fee and a return to the original APR.

This was the first response.

----- Original Message -----

From: HSBC Credit Card Customer Care

To: xxxx xxxx

Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 4:29 AM

Subject: Re: Payment Questions(O110 L256) (KMM66817203I31069L0KM)

Dear xxxxx xxxx,

We are writing to you in response to your inquiry regarding your Account

ending in xxxx issued by HSBC Bank Nevada N.A.

Our records confirm that on your statement dated 10/13/08, a payment in the

amount of $15.00 was due on 11/07/08. However, your payment in the amount of

$43.97 was received and posted on 11/18/08. Because your payment was not

received by the payment due date reflected on your billing statement, a late

fee was assessed to your Account.

We can certainly understand your concern regarding the late fee.

Unfortunately, we are unable to fulfill your request to remove the late fee

from your Account. As disclosed in your Cardmember Agreement and Disclosure

Statement, we must receive your payment by the payment due date or a late fee

may be assessed.

Please refer to the back of your billing statement for an explanation of how

payments are posted. We recommend that you allow 10 to 14 business days for

your payment to reach us by mail and up to three business days for processing

of online payments.

You can view your Account activity by logging in to your Account online and

viewing the Current Status information under Account Overview. While online,

you can also sign up for optional text or email alerts that tell you when

payments are due. Simply go to the Personal Profile tab and click on Update

Alert Preferences.

You are important to us and we appreciate your business.

Sincerely,

Chakradhar

HSBC Credit Card Customer Care

#######################

Naively thinking they misunderstood the problem, I immediately responded once again outlining their mistake thusly:

"Obviously, you did not read my message in its etirety. I had PRESCHEDULED on your site, every single payment to be debited the first of every month. It was PRESCHEDULED! Every other payment was debited on time, including December's. The only one you did not take was November and I have no idea why. The $43.07 payment you received was in response to an alert via email that my payment was past due. It should NOT HAVE BEEN.

This was not my fault. There was a flaw in your website function, not in my payment habits. It is very unfair to charge me for your mistake, and then compound it by sending me the email below showing that you did not fully grasp the gist of the problem. The problem was your online payment site. Check it. That payment was scheduled for the first of November, just like every previous payment and every payment thereafter. Every payment was on time. I will not accept that this late charge is in any way due to any mistake on my part. Please recheck this and make it right. It might seem unimportant to you, but it is of great pride to me that in all of my credit transactions for years, there has never been even one late payment. Until now."

########################

To which I received THIS response:

----- Original Message -----

From: HSBC Credit Card Customer Care

To:

Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 1:33 AM

Subject: Re: Payment Questions(O110 L256) (KMM66853325I31069L0KM)

Dear ,

We are writing to you in response to your inquiry regarding your Account

issued by HSBC Bank Nevada N.A.

After reviewing our records, we have determined that a credit card payment was

not scheduled through our Online Payment service for the statement dated

11/07/08.

When scheduling a payment through our Online Payment service, you must follow

all instructions until you receive the payment confirmation message that says

"Thank you, your payment has been successfully scheduled." This message lets

you know your payment has been completed and will be posted to your credit

card account. Once completed, payments are posted to your account after

midnight on the date scheduled.

After scheduling a payment, you can click on "Payment Activity" on the

left-hand side of the page to check the status. This option also helps you

verify you have successfully completed the payment request.

Please be advised that your Payment Due Date may vary each month. Be sure to

choose a Payment Date that will allow your payments to post on or before your

Payment Due Date.

As a friendly reminder, we must receive your payment by the payment due date

or a late fee will be assessed.

Please refer to the back of your billing statement for an explanation of when

payments are posted. In addition, please allow up to 14 days for your payment

to reach us by mail and up to three business days for processing of online

payments.

To help you manage your Account, you can view your account activity by logging

in to your Account online and viewing the Current Status information under

Account Overview. While online, you can also sign up for optional text or

email alerts telling you when your payment is due by selecting the Personal

Profile tab and clicking Update Alert Preferences.

You are important to us and we appreciate your business.

Sincerely,

Jyoti

HSBC Credit Card Customer Care

###############################

By then, I was flatly upset,so I called their Automated Telephone Number on the off chance there might be a way to speak to a customer service rep. There was, but after being kept on hold for 35 minutes, they hung up.

Out of frustration, I responded with yet another email as follows.:

"Once again, I am going to tell you that every payment from payment #1 was PRESCHEDULED as a RECURRING PAYMENT on your site for the FIRST of every month WHATEVER THE DUE DATE WAS. Every payment EXCEPT NOVEMBER was deducted, as scheduled, including DECEMBER. These were RECURRING, PRESCHEDULED, automatic payments set up in June to begin in July. You will note that on December 1, 2008, TWO payments were received. One from YOUR online billing site, and one from my own BillPay site. If these payments were not prescheduled, recurring, automatic payments, you would not have received two payments in December because it was a test for me to see if I had made some kind of error or if your site had malfunctioned. I DID NOT! IT WAS YOUR ONLINE BILLING ERROR, NOT MINE. Ater receiving an email alert, I immediately paid November manually. December was deducted as a recurring payment, as USUAL, after which I cancelled your service to prevent this from happening again. Also note the dates on recurring payments that were scheduled AFTER December which I have since cancelled to pay through my own BillPay site. I would have had to manually cancel November's payment,which I DID NOT!

You said:

"After reviewing our records, we have determined that a credit card payment was

not scheduled through our Online Payment service for the statement dated

11/07/08."

It certainly WAS and here is the proof. A little justice and common sense here."

Status

Payment Date Payment Amount Fee** Made Via

Bank Account Number Confirmation Number Activity

Processed 11/18/2008 $xx.97 $0.0 xxxx VZNMRK539F

Recurring Payments

Status

Payment Date Payment Amount Fee** Made Via

Bank Account Number Confirmation Number Activity

Cancelled 01/02/2009 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ

Cancelled 12/30/2008 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ

Processed 12/01/2008 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ

Processed 10/01/2008 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ

Processed 09/02/2008 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ

Processed 08/01/2008 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ

Processed 07/01/2008 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ

########################

*ALSO, please note that on their site, had I not cancelled their recurring payments, they very slickly would have taken TWO payments for the month of November/December and just kept on going.

*Cancelled 01/02/2009

*Cancelled 12/30/2008

**Note that all the processed payments were PREscheduled and automatic. November is conspicuous in its absence. So there was no need to visit the site to make any payments as their email suggests so I tried yet again.

##################################

To which they repied:

----- Original Message -----

From: HSBC Credit Card Customer Care

To:

Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 12:27 AM

Subject: Re: Payment Questions(O110 L256) (KMM66881029I31069L0KM)

Dear ,

We are writing to you in response to your inquiry regarding your Account

issued by HSBC Bank Nevada N.A.

We have noted your account with this information and we appreciate you

contacting us.

You are important to us and we appreciate your business.

Sincerely,

Kiran

HSBC Credit Card Customer Care

##############################

My response was once again immediate:

"Are you goingto credit my account back the late fee and overlimit fee assessed to me for your mistake?"

##############################

This last response from them had me tearing my hair out.:

Dear ,

We are writing to you in response to your inquiry regarding your Account

issued by HSBC Bank Nevada N.A.

We are unable to fulfill your request to remove the late fee from your

Account. As disclosed in your Cardmember Agreement and Disclosure Statement,

we must receive your payment by the payment due date or a late fee may be

assessed.

Please refer to the back of your billing statement for an explanation of how

payments are posted. We recommend that you allow 10 to 14 business days for

your payment to reach us by mail and up to three business days for processing

of online payments.

You can view your Account activity by logging in to your Account online and

viewing the Current Status information under Account Overview. While online,

you can also sign up for optional text or email alerts that tell you when

payments are due. Simply go to the Personal Profile tab and click on Update

Alert Preferences.

Our records do not indicate any overlimit fee assessed on your account.

As a reminder, you agree to pay an overlimit fee whenever your account balance

exceeds the total credit limit at any time within the billing cycle. Should

your balance remain over the limit, you may be subject to an additional

overlimit fee as early as the first day of the next billing cycle.

You are important to us and we appreciate your business.

Sincerely,

Rajesh

HSBC Credit Card Customer Care

######################################

After repeatedly trying and being unable to receive any satisfactory response, I called again and held for nearly an hour. Finally my call was taken by a woman who spoke very bad English and could not understand what I was saying. She kept repeating, almost verbatim, the replies in their emails.

The call ended very badly with me hanging up rather loudly. There is no other number to speak with any human being that can do anything about this.

To add insult to injury, they have reported this to the Credit Bureau as a delinquincy. I am at my wit's end with this. Don't know who to call or write to to complain. There must be some way to hold these people responsible and clear this off my credit report.

It isn't so much that one late payment in eight years will make much difference to other creditors, but it makes a heck of a difference to me. This is just evil.

Don't touch their offers of credit with anything but surgical gloves as you throw them in the trash.

Frostfire

Anytown, Pennsylvania

U.S.A.


5 Updates & Rebuttals

Frostfire

Uniontown,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
FTC Complaint: HSBC Bank of Nevada

#2Author of original report

Tue, March 31, 2009

Filed and waiting: We have received your complaint. Thank you for contacting the FTC. Your complaint has been entered into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies worldwide. Your reference number is: XXXX2403 Here are links to the publications you may find useful: FAIR CREDIT BILLING https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/


Frostfire

Uniontown,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
FTC Complaint: HSBC Bank of Nevada

#3Author of original report

Tue, March 31, 2009

Filed and waiting: We have received your complaint. Thank you for contacting the FTC. Your complaint has been entered into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies worldwide. Your reference number is: XXXX2403 Here are links to the publications you may find useful: FAIR CREDIT BILLING https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/


Frostfire

Uniontown,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
FTC Complaint: HSBC Bank of Nevada

#4Author of original report

Tue, March 31, 2009

Filed and waiting: We have received your complaint. Thank you for contacting the FTC. Your complaint has been entered into Consumer Sentinel, a secure online database available to thousands of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies worldwide. Your reference number is: XXXX2403 Here are links to the publications you may find useful: FAIR CREDIT BILLING https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/


Frostfire

Uniontown,
Pennsylvania,
U.S.A.
HSBC, Bank of Nevada: Yet ANOTHER Way to Scam You!

#5Author of original report

Tue, March 31, 2009

HSBC, Bank of Nevada, sent me a hardcopy letter informing me that someone had filed a change of address with them for my credit card, an indication of Identity Theft. They then proceeded to offer me "protection"...for a monthly fee, of course. At first I was really worried because I had NOT filed a change of address anywhere for any reason. So I logged on to their online credit site, and lo and behold, what they had done was to eliminate the word EAST, and replaced it with E. Not really any change at all since I do not receive their bills via paper mail. This is adding insult to injury. I am paying off this card as fast as I can so I can cancel it, but they are STILL charging me almost %30 interest, and no amount of complaining, explaining, or threats of filing a consumer complaint, (which I have done,) has made any difference whatsoever. I am so disgusted with these people, I can barely think of them without gritting my teeth.


Laurie

Haslet,
Texas,
U.S.A.
FILE COMPLAINTS

#6Consumer Comment

Mon, December 22, 2008

With the Federal Trade Commission and OFFICE OF THRIFT SUPERVISION This a violation of the Fair Credit Billing Act - http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/credit/cre16.shtm You have to file with BOTH agencies - OTS will work on your behalf to correct their errors, including refunding of fees and removal of negative reports to the credit bureaus. It is obvious they refuse to acknowledge their error unless you get the Government involved.

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