HSBC Card Services
They took my money, but didn't apply the payment

In December I was notified that someone had tried using my Mastercard that I opened through this company, and luckily for me, there wasn't enough of a limit for what they wanted to charge, so they got nothing out of me. However, this happened a day before my payment was due, and since my online account was also closed, I was forced to make an over the phone payment, which they waived the fee for only after I complained that I was not the one who closed the online account.

Several weeks later, I got my January statement, only to find out that they were claiming I had missed my payment, and my new amount due was $175 (it was only $69 for December) and my interest rate went from 15.99% to 29.94%. I called them, and after several days of getting the runaround about it being perfectly normal for my interest to double for no reason in one month, and they didn't believe that I had actually paid my bill in December. They also apparently call constantly hounding for payment if you miss one. I was at work a few days after getting my statement, and in the 6 hours that I worked, I had about 6 or 7 calls from them. They called again and I answered and they instantly demanded immediate payment over the phone.

Since the bank that I go through allows me to view checks online, and this payment was a "check by phone" there was picture proof that I paid the bill. I was give several different fax numbers, and had to fax in my proof a couple different times, and was then told each time that they had never heard of that fax number and didn't know where my fax had ended up. I finally found out a few weeks later that they had actually received all of my faxes, and just didn't communicate very well between the departments.

By this time, I had gotten my February bill, which was $110, and they finally credited me the original $69, which only lowered my payment due by a whole $2. I called a complained several times, especially since no less than 4 people told me my interest rate would go back to the 15.99 since this was THEIR mistake and not mine. I found out this was not the case and they refused to do anything about it and kept blaming the whole problem on me. I finally got ahold of a supervisor who said he could only lower it by 3 percent, and that maybe they would review it in several months and could lower it a couple percent if they felt the need to.

I just got my bill for March, and the amount due has gone down again, but its still about $100, which I can't really afford right now. I have not used the card to purchase anything since about May or June, so there is no other reason for the amount due to go from $70 to well over $100 in one billing cycle, let alone for the interest to change that much. I'm tired of them blaming me for their mistake and refusing to make good on the promise that several of their employees made. After I repair what they did to my credit, I plan on moving the entire balance to a whole different company and never doing business with this company again.

Company: HSBC Card Services
Country: USA
State: Illinois
City: Prospect Heights
Site: www.hsbcusa.com

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