Household Bank reviews and complaints

On 11/29/11 at approximately 10:00 pm, I called in to activate my new credit card. I was asked a series of questions such as my full social, full name and mother's maiden name. The representative then continued another series of questions that was "obtained from public records" and "may or may not pertain to me." I went on to answer these questions and then I was told that they could not verify my identity. Appalled, I could not understand why this was so since everything that was asked I had answered. Personally, I do not understand how some of the questions such as what kind of car I drive could even be used to verify my identity since they were never initially provided to Household Bank. In addition, a question was asked regarding two relatives which I did not know the answer to. According to the supervisor, this information should have been known by myself, but I fail to see how this would verify my identity.

I would like to be personally contacted regarding my account that I have had since 2005. I do not believe that such security questions can verify my identity. Not once was I asked my date of birth and I was readily available to answer any and all personal information. I do not want to send it additional paperwork to verify my account. I would like to close my account immediately.

They gave me a 2000 dollar limit. i paid my statement every month almost in full. my wife and my daughter go on vacation and use the card and told there is a block on it, i call household bank and they say they reduced my credit limit to 1400 dollars|. i asked them why and they said i took a cash advance for 60 dollars!. that 60 dollars was already paid/. the said OK and took the block off and my credit available was 69 dollars.. now i have my family on vacation with a 69 dollar credit availability!. i said when were you going to inform me of the credit reduction they said we mailed you a letter today/. what good does that do for me|. when i get the bill i am going to pay them off and cancel the card screw them all.

Every month I make my payment on time give or take a day or so. I just so happened to look back on my statements wondering why my balance is not going down. They have been charging me late charges for no reason. As of January 2011 I am now one month ahead and I received a late charge in the months of November, December, January, February and March. I have emailed them asking them to reimburse these charges and they refused. I also asked them to please lower my rate because of the hard economic times. They said NO! I am now forced to close this account.

They do it because they CAN! Actually, I have card with Orchard Bank, which is same as HSBC.HSBC card has a low interest rate, so did Orchard when I signed up back in November. However they did not send me 1st statement therefore I had not paid the bill. They then sent me the next month's statement, late fee included. I called up telling them I had not received the 1st bill (which was honest) and they reversed the late fee and gave me back half of the annual fee because they did not want to lose me as a customer...oh boo hooo. The next statement...they JACKED UP THE INTEREST FROM 15% TO 29.9%.They did not reverse it and I cancelled the account. Oh and btw, if you want to talk to someone in the US, you MUST ask for it. I do it all the time! Screw these banks. They all do it because they CAN. They take ownership on their faults but screw the customer in the end! I believe if the company is in the US then customer service should be US based and THE INTEREST RATES THAT ARE SKY HIGH SHOULD BE ELIMINATED. It never used to be this way! But greediness comes in various packages.

I have been calling household bank for months

1. It prevent me from logging in many time keeps on asking me for my to change my email... then go paperless... then something else.

2. It says it takes my payment online and it doesn’t

I have to keep on checking on it and do it several times before it takes...

I have called more that 10 times on it over the past few months and they keep on saying its fixed or they are working on it .. What a garbage place

I would like to know what fedgov place to complain

I applied for a credit card online and I put my balance transfer info on the application I wanted to transfer 8, 500.00 from my discover card., well I was only given a credit limit of 1, 000.00, so there was no way of transferring that balance but instead of calling me first household bank went ahead and transfered 850.00 without my consent first, and i am not even the card holder on the discover card so they didn't even check that first. When I called them to tell them they made a mistake they told me there was nothing they can do about it!

I would like to start by saying this company refuses to help me, or anyone I know that utilizes their services. NEVER USE THEM, businesses that I know use them for house accounts are BEST BUY, Household Bank, Helzberg Diamonds, Orchard Bank, and GM Rewards.They outsource customer service calls to the middle east and asian islands, yet are still only open for a short business day. Contacting them is useless. The staff is rude and seem almost happy to hear how bad this company can make your life. HSBC corporate is pleased with their activity, and needs to be sued to stop.

Upon opening my first card with them I noticed they had poor call centers. Within a month I was offered a better card from the same company, so wanting to save money with a better interest rate, I opened the new card and canceled the first. It had a better interest rate and no annual fee. Seemed great.

This is the second year in a row I have been charged a $60 annual fee. This year it put me over my credit limit by $15. They charged me a fee for that too. I emailed them, to complain. Never received contact back. I used their customer service line to dispute and was told they would call me back. They never called. They refuse to help me.

Further, I use a credit report service. I have been informed that they have posted negative information, but will not allow me to dispute it. HSBC IS A FOREIGN OWNED RIPOFF CREDITOR. AVOID THEM. USE ANY AVAILABLE OPTION TO EXCLUDE THEM AS A CREDITOR. HSBC IS A SCAM. HSBC ENCOURAGES RUDE DISRESPECTFUL EMPLOYEES. HSBC IS HORRIBLE.

I received a promotion in the mail for a preapproved credit card. It was associated with Best Buy so I figured it was legit. I reviewed the Terms and Conditions and it was a standard card with no annual fee and decent rates. I opted for the 'Account Shield' protection program cause it seemed reasonable. I then used the card a few times and set up online payment through their web site. Here's where they got me. I charged the card up to within $10 of the limit. I set up a payment and it came out of my bank without any issues. what then happened is they held the payment for about 5 days without crediting my account. This put a pending charge on my account for the amount of the payment. Now, we all know that payment is sitting in a big account somewhere earning .003% daily. So, it makes sense for them to hold it as long as possible. They stated that the system will do it automatically. While waiting for the payment to 'clear' I was out of the $$ in my bank account and couldn't use the card. Then the statement was released and there was an over limit charge of $35. I checked online and it showed that the 'account shield' actually put the balance over the limit. Had the payment 'cleared' I would've been $100 below the limit and had no problems... It's a shady way of doing business.

The card is OK as long as you just use it for purchases at retail stores. No gas, No cash, and DO NOT use their on-line bill pay. The best way to pay them is through your own bank because it's usually sent electronically so if they try to charge you late fees you can dispute it through your bank.

When I opened above credit cards with Household Bank I also purchased their credit card insurance. I became disabled and after numerous attempts Household (self-insured) finally activated my disability claim. This was a devastating road, because the insurance claim department was always late in making the payments (same financial institution!). When my doctor declared me permanently disabled, the credit card insurance paid off the balance. However, the interest rate on my credit card went up from 17.9% to 29.0%! (due to the late payments the Household Bank credit card insurance department had made). I called Household Bank and spoke to a supervisor who agreed to decrease the interest rate to the original rate of 17.9% and advised me that a letter would follow-up. I received the letter apologizing for the error, because they felt that the interest rate would be indeed 29.0% instead! I closed both accounts with Household Bank! Talking about crooks! How can Household Bank do this? Their corporate office is in the State of Nevada and this may be the reason why their state laws are more flexible...

CONSUMER, BEWARE!