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 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 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 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, 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 $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 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ
Cancelled 12/30 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ
Processed 12/01 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ
Processed 10/01 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ
Processed 09/02 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ
Processed 08/01 $X0.00 $0.00 xxxx 2GPW47KRXZ
Processed 07/01 $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
*Cancelled 12/30
*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 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.
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