I've been a member with HSBC Card Services through my GMCard since I was 16. It was the first credit card that I applied for, as a GM car was the first car I purchased, so I figured it would be a good investment. That was 8 years ago, and since then I've been a good customer. My late payments despite being laid off several times have been very minimal and long forgotten, and my account was in perfectly good standing.
I called the HSBC office of the president to inquire about a higher interest rate, and they said that they had sent me a letter (which I never received and they would have no way of proving either case), which notified me that all GMCard accounts would incur an increase in interest rate to prime 15.4%.in my case that's an increase from 11% to 17.5%, or 60%. I was told that I have to either accept the new terms, or the account can be closed on the lower interest rate and my earnings would be forefeited.
I was told that this was a business decision that cannot be altered, reversed, or amended, and that I would have to suffer the consequences. The lady I spoke to was Tina Sneider, whose phone number is 888-890-4204 extension 6654. Alternately, you can call Terry Rowe at (813) 754-1400 extension 6621. While being very courteous over the phone and agreeing that these actions were unfair and undeserved, she could do nothing but refund my additional incurred interest rate since the date the letter was supposedly mailed and close my account.
I've read various reports online that GMCard made this action in order to reduce the amount of rewards they owed as it had increased to a very large number. I've been using this card for 8 years, during which time my earnings have rocketed to $2200. That means I've spent $44,000 on this card. I filed a BBB report against them and the same person I talked to the first time called me back offering me no better solutions. She refused to settle for less than the amount owed, and refused to apply even part of the $2200 I had saved up in rewards toward the account balance. She proceeded to admit that I had done absolutely nothing wrong and that this astronomic increase in interest rate was at no fault of my own.
In my opinion, this is fraud, theft, and simply infair. This is blackmail, and this is one company that I will never do business with again. This is undeniably a ripoff. I would advise that anyone reading this save themselves the aggravation and stay away from HSBC credit cards.
I have since closed the account and my earnings of 8 years will be gone in 90 days.
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