HSBC Holdings
Reviews and Complaints

-----original message-----
From: "hsbc bank plc"
Subject: urgent enquiry on your representative
Date: tue, 26 jan 2010 15:28:48 +0100

Hsbc bank plc london.(registered no.1026167).
Address: 8 canada square london, e14 5hq,
United kingdom.

Chairman committee on foreign contract and
Inheritance fund payment notification
From:hsbc bank plc london.

Attn:beneficiary,

The u.s.a government, world bank and united nations organization official has approved to pay you part payment of your contract/inheritance fund payment valued at usd$5.5m in conjunction with british government and hsbc bank plc london.

This decision was made last week.with this development, a woman by name (mrs: janet white) came to our office with an application stating that you gave her the power of attorney to be the beneficiary of your outstanding contract/inheritance/award funds.
She made us to believe that you are dead and that she is your next of kin. we got your email address and decided to send an email through this address hoping to find out if you are dead or alive and also to find out if you at any time gave this woman the power of
Attorney to represent you.

Please let us know also if you are aware that we are almost ready to transfer part payment of $5.5m usd of your outstanding funds to her nominated bank account stated below:

Bank name:washington mutual bank
Address:1723 palmdale bulv.
Palmdale ca. 93550
Acct # : [protected]
Rout # : [protected]
Swift code # : wmsbus66
Beneficiary:janet white

If you are not aware of the above instruction, do respond to this email immediately by contacting the chairman of the international remittance department (mr.vincent cheng)

His contact information are written below:
Name:mr.vincent cheng.
Direct telephone number:+44-70-[protected]
Fax number:+[protected]
Email:[protected]@yahoo.com.hk
Email:[protected]@sify.com

For immediate transfer of your funds be informed that you are not allowed to correspond or contact any person or office with respect to this transfer other than this office, you are required to send to him an email with your full following information below:

1) your full name__________________

2) residence address, city, state and country______________________

3) personal cell phone, fax and mobile phone
Number_________________________

Yours sincerely,

Mr. alex hungate.

Hsbc bank plc london.

A series of continoues phone calls that claim to be from HSBC and attampts to extract information regarding my accounts. I have checked with HSBC that they are no real calls, and tol the caller to stop calling but still get daily calles probaly from an autodialler. The following phone numbers shows on the incoming call display:

[protected] and [protected]

Today I opened our HSBC credit card bill to find my interest rate had been raised by 3%, from 11.99% to 14.99%. I then called HSBC, spoke to supervisor Steve, ID# EHL, and was told that a notice had been mailed to us in September informing us of this pending interest rate increase and an option for us to opt out and not have the interest raised but to have our account closed. I had until December 10, 2009 to respond. This notice was not sent with my bill where it would no doubt have been noticed and read. I did not receive this notice.

Had I received this notice I would have opted out. I would in no way agree to an interest rate increase.

I asked for a copy of this opt-out notice and was told by Steve that it was not available. I told Steve that if this is legal, it certainly is not ethical, and that this is the very behavior which has cast banks and credit cards in a negative light in the public eye. He then said our conversation was concluded and hung up on me.
I called back and spoke to Steve’s supervisor Richard, ID# Q72, to complain about the interest rate increase and Steve’s behavior. Richard informed me that HSBC had a copy of the opt-out letter, but that they had “chosen the option to not make it available to customers”. He told me that Steve’s behavior was rude. He also told me that many customers were calling to complain about their interest rate increase because they had not received the notice, did not realize what it was or did not understand it.
In our case, Richard informed me that a request had been made to the Backend Department to grant us an opt out, even though the deadline had passed. He said in all likelihood it would be granted, and if it is, my previous lower interest rate would be retroactively reinstated and a credit issued to my account. I will be notified of their decision by mail in three weeks.
My current complaint is the underhanded and devious way HSBC raised my interest rate, their unwillingness to immediately grant my request to opt out, and their unwillingness to send a copy of the opt out letter. I will have a future complaint should HSBC fail to rectify the situation by returning my account to its original interest rate retroactively.
Thank you for your concern and consideration of this matter.

HSBC Investments have Exhorbitant Fee to move YOUR money to another financial institution. I moved my money after getting poor service on their loans and information. Be careful to check ALL the details before giveing them any of your hard earned investment money.

I am using HSBC credit card for long time. It was assured to me that no annual fees and card membership fees will be ever charged to us.
but in my current invoice dated 2nd feb 2010 the above chrges has been charged. i am feeling cheated by such a remarkable organisation.

I can only request for reversal of the above charges i.e rs.1000/- towards annual fee and rs.2000 towards primary card membership fees.

my mobile no. is 0-[protected].
account no. is : -[protected].

We refinanced our home with Beneficial( HSBC) in Feb. 2007. As the mortgage specialist advised we agreed to biweekly payments. It became evident after a year that we would not be able to pay that kind of money every month. We applied for a hardship reduction. The hardship reduction was approved and our payment was cut in half. We received a letter stating that the payment was reduced for 6 months(August 2009). Our understanding was that after 6 months this hardship would be reviewed. After the 6 months, Beneficial told us continue to pay the reduced amount. We did so. In January, out of the blue, a deputy left foreclosure papers on our front door. The papers included a court date less than a month away. They had also scheduled our home for a sale!
Upon contacting Beneficial on how to fix this problem, we were informed we would need $4, 500(on the same day the papers were served). We called Beneficial for a confirmation on this amount and the amount three days later was over 7, 800.00!

They also tacked on 1, 295.00 in attorney fees. They also want another payment before the end of the month.

The loan amount was 138, 000.00 The balance remaining after 3 years is still 144, 000! If we were able to keep this loan and pay it off, at the end we would have over 400, 000 dollars paid to this company.

So, did they go back before the hardship and add the other half for 6 months? 4, 200.00- 2, 800.00=7, 000.00. What real reputable company does anybody know that would let a customer get that far behind before foreclosing.

They don’t take partial payments, so how is it they would let us continue to pay the reduced amount from Sept. to Dec.? They would not. Now all of a sudden, they are trying to take our home, and put 3 small kids out in the street.

The holiday season is here. My family and I left for holiday. Slipped on a credit card debts from my gold card hsbc due 28/12/09 sum of less than usd$30 and usd$100.

When we were in macau and hong kong, I received roaming calls from really rude debt collectors acting on behalf on hsbc.

Yet they claim hsbc 'the world's local bank"and you see the websites full of awards and how they can help.

They are just practically loan sharks in suits. A camouflaged.

I understand by all means I owe the charges on my visa gold card. But the amount owing is so minimum compared to my monthly payment in which I never pay in installments and always the full amount never late.

Seeing this history, they should have some understanding and a grace period. I am willing to pay the late charges and the interest added.

This is small money. What I am most annoyed is the rude debt collectors ladies who are trained to talk in annoyingly understated manner and a subtle threat in which by law is still acceptable. (not an open threat)

Upon receiving these calls, the following day when my office re opens after the new year, I asked my secretary to immediately find the statements and call and pay asap.

Outstanding balances was paid in full together with late charges and interests.

And yet, once again, this morning, their debt collector called and ask me to pay up again, over the same matter.

Please, for a bank who claims international standard and with slogan"the world local's bank", hsbc falls to low to employ debt collectors with the level as the"loan sharks'.

I wonder how many more days if I had delay the payment and they will come knocking on my house door or even write banners over usd$100?

Ridiculous.

I write to this website is also because upon calling the debt collector number and asking to speak to their person in charge, the debt collectors lady on the phone refuses to give out the name and put me through. I suppossed each stand on their own with a substantial amount of commission if debts had been collected.

I had a Menards card (local home improvement company) until tonight, I just canceled it. These people are ###.

I had two promotions going with Menards, one due January 10, 2010 one due March 21, 2010. I had made two small charges on my card and forgot about them. When they contacted me I immediately paid the charges by our bill payer (September 2009).

In October 2009 I paid the promotion due in January in full.

Today I opened my bill and the promotions were canceled and back charges, fees and interest were added. I called them and was told that because of "the presidents" new legislation they were allowed to contact us by writing within forty-five days to offer if I didn't respond they could do this.

I have never seen any documentation that they sent me. They say it was sent.

I paid my card in full tonight and told the supervisor that they are the reason the legislation was enacted. I'm also writting to Menards.

I would like to complain regarding unlawful practice of disrupting the clients account without proper procedure. I just find out that my credit card account number 4028 xxxx xxxx xxxx is currently blocked due to information mismatched and they are asking for valid identification that time – which I did not make the call last december 10, 2009. the problem is that the credit card is blocked with no one ever tried calling from hsbc customer service to inform me about the problem. I have provided all contact information and I even enrolled to online banking system but I did not receive a single call or mail advisory from any hsbc customer service representative. I just found out while trying to use the credit card and got an invalid transaction. I was just lucky that I brought enough cash at that time. I cannot even contact the toll free number that they posted on their websites. I hope they would act on this matter for I have read that this type of complaint did not only happen to me. I found out about this poor service from many people posting on many blog sites. another issue is that why would hsbc question the usage even at high monthly transactions when everything I always paid it on time. I never experienced this with other banks and got this kind of awkward problem. it just takes them less than a day to hold the account but it takes 5-7 working days to cancel the hold status – this is a very questionable practice which only proves one thing base on other peoples comment.

Junvi a berame

HSBC Bank is the worst company to issue credit cards. I had one fo their cards back in high school (im a junior in college) and paid it off, they're were charges that i was disputing when the account was opened. Later i found out the was a balance 5 years later! I found this out through the collection agency that contacted me on out emergency line at work! I thought someone in my family died so i rushed to the phone only to find out that the person on the other line had no current info on myself and didn't have the correct last name! the social and personal info was correct and the rep on the other line told me that if i didn't wire transfer money to that company within that day that the local police were going to be sent to my workplace to have me arrested for non payment of this debt. I work for JPMorgan Chase and i know my rights as a consumer. The Fair Debt Collections Act clearly states that the THIRD PARTY COLLECTION AGENCY is breaking the law in harassing me at work and when i get home they still continue to contact well after 9pm. I've notified them in writing to stop contacting me and that still has not been enough. Im currently working with the BBB, Federal Trade Comission, Attorney General and an attorney to bring this company down to end the nightmare with both companies.

Received phone call after first superday for client management, friday, nov 20th — they said i'd be moved to the dec. 4th interview date for m&a, and i'd hear soon.

Emailed 4x starting a week before the interview. no message until today (dec 3) and called them. they said nobody had offered me a m&a interview.

What the # is going on?

Well, before I end the matter let me make you a brief familiarization of the incident when 03 years (or so) down the line one of your HSBC representative (by phone call) approached me for using HSBC Cards and ensured me that it's a free card and no annual fee would be charged for the Card by HSBC. Convinced by the promotional offer going then ( annual fee excempted) and much by the good name of HSBC I decided to keep one (and an additional Card). I was surprised to see that I was charged with Rs.2000/- for my Primary Credit Card and Rs.1000/- for the additional Credit card accountable to "Annual / Membership Fees".But, as you all must be aware of that now a days lot of Banks have come up who are offering Credit Cards without charging any annual fee. Even now, I've been using credit Cards of some renowned banks without paying any sort of annual fee. So, putting away your Cards will not matter me much (except that, I'll break the ties with your esteemed Bank).

I'm a hard working man and take every measures to save even a single penny. So, there is no point in carrying on using your credit Card at the cost of so called "Annual/Membership Fee" and hence, decided not to carry out any transaction from the Cards and close it.

It will be of immense pleasure if you can do the needful by blocking both the Card service at the earliest.

Regards,
Siddhartha Gupta
HSBC Cresdit Card ( **** **** 6694)

We are writing this complaint in regards to a commercial that airs during the MSG broadcast of Buffalo Sabres hockey games. We find it very disturbing that HSBC would put a woman on television telling a demograph that it is entirely acceptable to state that it took her 3 months to love her child. While we're fine with her saying.."i didn't want to be a mother", the rest should be deleted. Thank you for your time, and we hope you fix this. Sincerely,
Every Concerned Parent

first of all my complaint starts off with Kawaski sports center in Little rock AR. I went there to trade in a four month old Honda i purchased new from Honda, i needed a biger bike! kawasaki had what i liked, they took the trade if i would finance with kawaski credit, so i filled out the credit app. i thuoght was for kawaski credit. but unknowingly was an app. for HSBC. the sales rep. told me it was set up like an revolving acc. that i can add to to dress the bike and 7.9% for the first two years. i signed the reciept not a contract. but on the bottom it said. "i agree to turms of HSBC incorated by reference", off i went on my new bike. I was waiting on a payment book to come in thr mail but instead got a bill from HSBC, a kawaski card and turms of the bike note. this is when i first new that it was finaced on a credit card. to late now so i went with it. all was good till the to yeas ran out and my 7.9% went to 17.8% witch jacked up my payment, plus my payments started getting posted late, and they charged me late fees plus put me in defalt 24%. this snowball very fast . and yes i mist a payment during a move i made, and was late to send the next, well to make a long story short, the bike i got over 6k invested in was repoed without warning, i offerd HSBC the back payments plus the repo fee and go get my bike, they told me it was to late and the only way to get the bike back was to pay full bal. of the note plus repo fee, and i had ten days to do it, well within the ten days my bike was removed from the state and sold at a closed sale for way less than trade in, its was all a scam from day one, the system is set up for you to fale

Some ppl calling from HSBC bank for opening a zero balance account; and they told me that they got number from tradeindia.com & alibaba.com etc. And have a tie-up with them. I have a number which is already DND but these guys / telecaller / sales ppl don't bother.
This foreign bank company is purchasing data base of importers-exporters from these CHEAP companies (tradeindia.com & alibaba.com).
These B2B companies don't have a strong privacy policy.

###!

In August of 2008, I opened the bill from HSBC GM Card, a card I had since about 2000, and regularly paid as agreed, Expecting a credit balance of $39, (I had returned some shoes which were credited back) I was shocked to see a charge for $879.00 from Dell. I immediately called the number by the charge, as I had not made it. I spoke to a representative of Dell who referred me to their fraud line, which turned out to be a porn line, as was verified by the service rep who gave it to me when I called him back. He had no other number to give me, but said he would report it to someone. I then called HSBC and reported this fraudulent charge, thinking they would help me. They said they would refer it to their fraud dept and asked me if I would like to activate my new card. I informed them that I hadn['t received a new card and would not like to activate it, as perhaps that was the origin of the fraudulent charge. They immediately canceled that card and sent me a new one. I thought all was well, but it wasn't. About 2 months later, I received a notice in the mail from HSBC that they would be unable to help me with this fraudulent charge because it was a "secured transaction". I subsequently called them to complain, and they said there was nothing they could do because I had the card in question at the time the charge was made. I reminded them that I didn't have the new card that they had sent out, and they once again referred the case to the fraud department, who once again sent me another notice saying their was nothing they could do since I had the card at the time of the transaction and it was a secured transaction. It was now 3 months since the event had transpired, and they had told me not to notify the police because the fraud dept would take care of all that. I didn't know what to do except not pay the charge. As the card became past due, I began to receive frequent phone calls from collections, wanting me to pay for this huge bill. Dell informed me that the charge was for a digital camera that had been mailed to Las Vegas, no where near where I live in Bakersfield. Eventually, this episode began to effect my credit rating, and in February, they invited me to pay $679.00 to settle the bill for less than the amount. I did not know what else to do, so I paid it, since my daughter is in college and I have to have student loans for her. This company basicly helped the person who made this charge to get away with fraud. They held my credit record up for ransom and I was forced to pay to save my credit rating. I will never have any further dealings with this horrible company whose actions basicly contribute to the success of credit card fraud and identity theft. Every day we are at risk, as most hotels will not let you check in without a credit card, even if you offer cash up front. It takes only the card numbers and the 3 digit security code on the back to make a so-called secure transaction by computer(plus the victims address and zip code, also readily available to any hotel clerk). I do not doubt that I am not the only person that this has happened to, and since I had no experience with this type of problem, I did many things wrong. I trusted this company to help me when their only interest was in making sure that they did not lose anything. Even if you think you have no HSBC Cards you should no that this bank under the name retail services, handles many major Dept store cards. Buyer and credit card users beware! Yes, this could happen to you.

Flag this messageRe: Halloween Grant Claim Notification!Sunday, November 1, 2009 4:28 PMFrom: "clara.[protected]@earthlink.net" Add sender to ContactsTo: [protected]@yahoo.comDear Website Visitor,

Thank you for visiting one of our Promotional Websites! As the hourly winner on one of our various promotional websites, your Email Address has won a Halloween Grant BONUS of 995, 000 GBP which is equivalent to 1.5M US D.O.L.L.A.R.S. Thank you for visiting our website!
Send "How to claim" to the email below for Details on your claims.

------------------------------
CONTACT: The Claims Officer, HSBC Bank, United Kingdom.

Contact Officer’s Email: [protected]@att.net

Contact Phone:
[protected] (Please, dial with UK International calling code)
--------------------------------

Clara Criste Jnr.
Disbursement/Orientation Department.

My wife got an offer from her union (UFCW) offering her a UFCW Union Plus Credit Card through HSBC with an introductory 0% APR on purchases and balance transfers. She called to apply for the card and to transfer a balance from another credit card. After asking the sales rep several times if the 0% APR would apply, she was told several times that it would. She was then told that her interest rate for purchases after the intro rate period expired would be 9.99%. When she recieved the first bill, she saw that she was charged a 15.99%APR, which was higher than the rate on the card that the balance was transferred from. When she called to have it adjusted, she was told that she was not given a 0% intro rate and they could do nothing for her. Why would she pay a 3% balance transfer fee to a card with a higher rate? We have learned two lessons. First, never ever do business with HSBC and secondly, when doing a balance transfer on a new card with an intro rate, wait until you actually recieve the card and the disclosure statement in the mail. Without the disclosure statement, you have no evidence of the terms of the transfer.

My brother, who held credit card accounts with hsbc, died this october and I notified the bank about it the very next day; asking to block all his cards and also that all the balances/ accounts would be cleared once I get hold of the death certificate (dc) from the respective government body (which takes atleast a month in india). but the bank's executives/ collection agents didn't understand a single word I said to them and have been repeatedly calling me every day asking for my dead brother.

I don't expect hsbc to grieve with me at my loss, but what I expected, from a bank that holds such an eminent reputation, was that they'll treat this case with a little bit of altruism and sensitivity. my brother had accounts with other esteemed banks and once I notified them about the situation they haven't harassed me and have been very understanding, unlike hsbc bank.

And what's even worse is that they have all the information updated on their system.. it's just that their executives are lazyasses and don't want to check the accounts before making the call. as such it's difficult for a family who have lost their loved one, on top of that there are such banks as hsbc, which won't spare a chance to scratch your wounds and let you live in peace...

9-9-2009
Shri h kulshreshtha
Banking ombudsman
Reserve bank of india building
2nd floor, 6, sansad marg
New delhi - 110001
Telno. 011-[protected]/[protected]
/[protected]
Fax no. 011-[protected]

Subject: payment refund

Reference: hsbc bank credit card no [protected] & call ref. no
[protected] dated [protected] from call ceter delhi.

Dear sir

1) in above reference, I made excess payment to my credit card a/c. of hsbc bank rs.1811.00 on date 04-06-09 after discussion to call center executive that deposite this payment that will not attract late and finance charges and we will refund your excess amount to you by cheque by couries. and in one or two days after discussion with seniors we will wave off all charges later on, these charges were reversed on 14-06-09 according to the statement of july month.

2) in july I got a statement in which rs.1641.16 as finance charges and service tax rs.169.03 was imposed on my a/c and balance.80 paise was left instead of 1811.00

3) after so many calls to hsbc customer care center, emails to nodal office. there were no satisfactory answer.

4) I would like to demand my money back 1811.00 with 42% interest as they are charging people without any reason.

5) these all credit card company first give card without any fees, then in coming bills they charge membership fee.
After not paying that bill they impose finance charges and late fee and service tax.
In next 2-3 bill it becomea huge amount to pay and customer become victim of these frauds. some of the cheque these people recieves but destroys and not present in bank also to levy finance charges. customer thinks he had made payment.

6) so, please take proper action as soon as possible against these frauds.

Feel free to contact

P. k. gupta

[protected]
Card no [protected]

E-14/2 krishna nagar
Delhi-110051

Encloser : statement of hsbc aprial to july2009