I made 2 separate purchases at my local Artvan Furniture in Michigan. One purchase took place in the Fall of 2005 (18 months, same as cash). The other in the Summer of 2007 (18 Months, no interest/no Payments). The First plan required monthly payments and had an earlier expiration date.
Since I have learned to pay close attention to HSBC's bills (their sneeky), I noticed that my payments were being distributed to all of my purchases in an even percentage. The problem is, their own policy, clearly stated on the monthly statement, is to pay the oldest debt first.
I called to correct this problem. The polite person on the other side could change where the money went, but they could not change how my money was distributed in the future. They made it quite clear that I had to call them every Month to repeat the procedure I had just completed until my old debt was errased.
So, for about 5 months a made monthly calls to ensure that my payment was distributed to my older purchase until it was payed off. If I had not, I would have defaulted on my agreement to pay it off in 18 months and, subsequently, would have had to pay all the accrued interest.
Baware of HSBC and pay close attention to your statements.
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