I have been a loyal customer of HSBC bank, having even opened my Business checking and savings account with them. I have had a HSBC Discover card for over 2 years, which in that time period my credit line has increased 2 times due to being a good customer. I am never over 50% of my credit limit, I always pay at least 10 times the minimum due amount to keep the balance low and I never pay the account late. I am very credit conscious and take my credit profile very serious.
I went online and used my HSBC card to make a purchase with a company that I do business with on a normal basis. The purchase amount was right around $260.00 which is more than 10 times less than my credit limit or so I thought. The next morning I checked my email to make sure the purchase went through and noticed I received an email from HSBC and the store I purchased from. The email from HSBC stated that I was within $500.00 of my credit limit. I thought I was a victim of fraud and thought someone had gotten my credit card number and maxed it out. I then checked the email from the store and to my embarrassment it stated my transaction was declined.
I proceeded to call HSBC only to find out that they had decreased my credit limit to $17.00 over my credit balance. The decrease was over 90% of the credit limit. When speaking with the rep from HSBC they were very unhelpful and could not answer my questions only stating that HSBC to protect themselves have decreased the credit limit on a lot of there card members and I was not the only one. When asked why I was not notified they simply replied I will receive a letter in the mail in the next 7 to 10 business days. The worst part is that I had just received my statement a week ago and made a $900 payment the next day and there was nothing in that statement letting me know of my new credit limit decrease.
I am very displeased with the blatant disregard for customer satisfaction. I do understand the difficult times of the economy but to not notify your customers of this decrease only days after the stimulus package was approved to bail out banks so they can lend more money to there clients is just bad business. I guess the US government got screwed yet again by the CEO's of these banks as they sail the Caribbean in there yachts drinking martinis and collecting the 500k bonuses for a job they can not and have not done.
I am going to the bank first thing in the morning to cancel all of my accounts with HSBC. I will never recommend there services to any one that I know and will go out of my way to let people know of impure business ethics of this company. I deal a lot with banks and consumers since I am the CEO of a Fraud and Credit education company. I will make sure I make this experience a part of my classes and lectures to try to inform as many people as I can as to not use this company's services.
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