Like many people who have spent their lives self-supporting, largely debt free, and financially solvent with no significant effort towards that, I run with the well-supported assumption that most people's money problems are their own fault. Some people undoubtedly get screwed by Evil Greedy Corporations, but they're few and far between. Right?

It was with that attitude that I took a small line of credit with HSBC via Best Buy because it was interest-free for some ridiculous period of time. Now, less than 60 days later, I am already terminating that account after dickslapping three seperate supervisors from Pakiraqistan or where ever the hell they're digging up the customer abuse staff. Why? HSBC policy includes not only stiff fines and credit penalties for late payments, they also silently discount any payments made "early." What is early, you ask?

That's an excellent question. Apparently there are only about 20 days a month you can choose to pay them in. You will find out WHICH 20 days at the end of the month, along with a late fee. Did you pay them on the 6th? Whoops, we're sorry, you now owe us $50 more because we didn't open that billing cycle until the 7th. You got the statement telling you this on the 31st, 4 days after the late fee was applied on the 27th.

Riiiight. I need not explain to anyone that there are essentially no other creditors that behave this way. Any money I pay American Express is counted towards my statement. USAA has the exact same and unfathomably obvious policy. So does GMAC. So does Bank of America. So does Wachovia. So does Merryl Lynch. So does Wells Fargo.

You get the idea.

So, I'm here to admit publicly that I was wrong. If you are unlucky enough to have to deal with Household Bank's financing wing, you have my condolences because the man is out to keep you down after all and will find any reason possible to find you in default.

The good news is that they apparently know this is going to get them taken to court and immediately offered to waive half the "late charge" and dropped the entire thing 3 supervisors later.

/nods Malse the fraudlent credit industry has created a litany of self serving rules meant to keep you/us in their debt forever.

It needs serious cleaning up.

Wow this is scary but you just gave a frightening example of the bullshit I went through two months ago with WAMU. Only their call centers are in Costa Rica, Puerto Rica, DR, and some place else...none in the US no one speaks English natively. I've had this credit card for about 10 years the limit has grown to some place around 15k. Up until 2 months ago I used it regularly and paid it off at the end of every month. Until mysteriously I got charged some asanine fee that I wanted to understand why. And like you, I fell into some hole where I paid my balance off too early. B/C I then charged something two days after but 1 day before the billing cycle I was considered late/past due. Mind you I had just paid the balance off and recharged something 2 days later for a whopping $200. I was charged $79 in fees and when I couldn't get someone who spoke English natively I said FUCK YOU, paid the balance off and just put the card in my desk drawer where it will never see the light of day again.

I then proceeded to call another card company and ask them about their policy and where their call centers were. I settled on First National Bank of Omaha which is who I now do all my credit transactions with. I will never touch a WAMU/providian card again, ever.

I don't know if this is some new BS policy that got dropped on us but it made me care enough to dig a little deeper. It's a crock of shit and I got so fed up of having someone talk to me in Spanish first then English with a heavy accent I didn't even bother trying to get my fees refunded I just wanted to drop them.

WAMU/providian card




Back in the early-mid 90's I was getting all these offers from Providian, and like any other unsolicited financial mailings I tossed them. That is until, one day, I got curious as to whether they might offer a better deal than my current cards.

I hurt myself laughing.

I was being offered a pre-approved account, based on my excellent history, of x amount line of credit. All I had to do was fill out the form, sign it, and mail it in using the enclosed reply envelope. Oh yeah, I also would be paying an application fee, a one time account opening fee, and my first yeear's annual fees. According to the information in fine print on the back of the application, I would owe approximately $129 as soon as my account was opened. I sincerely feel sorry for those who are quick to sign for those offers.

When I finished laughing, I wrote a short note, enclosed it in the reply envelope, and needless to say I received no further mailings from them.

I will never touch a WAMU/providian card again, ever.

Providian got sued for some of those practices, and lost. Unfortunately, they make so much money screwing people over, they can afford to lose a few million here and there, and remain largely undeterred.

I do not now or have I ever owned a card that felt the need to charge me just to have it. That is sad that people fall into that hole, my mother being one. She has shitty credit b/c she manages her money shitty. And actually believed it when it said her credit was good even though it wasn't. I mean come on YOU know what your credit rating is.

My WAMU card... up until July was something I'd used for years. Jackasses, but you live and learn. I am probably viewed as a biggot now days b/c I ask large companies I do business with where their call centers are located and if they speak English natively. I'm tired of dealing people I can't understand.

Squish and I are in credit card debt for around $2500.00 dollars, we rarely if ever use credit 98 out of 100 business purchases I make I use a debit card.

Huh, I've been banking with HSBC for 10 years and haven't run into an issue like that.

HSBC only accepts credit card payments on business days, so if you attempt to pay them on the weekend, it doesn't get credited until Monday (assuming Monday isn't a holiday). But the payment still goes through. I haven't ever had a payment silently discounted.

What is the connection between Household Bank and HSBC, though? I got my credit card through HSBC directly.

Ironically if I'd try to pay them on a weekend I might not have known -- that might have delayed the payment a few days the Happy Magic Window. HSBC is the crediting wing of HSB, the exact relationship between them and the mother bank is probably eight pages of Legalese long but I believe they function largely as a subsidiary.

It's entirely possible they only apply the "screw you" policies to classes of accounts deemed likely to be victimized, like I said, this was a store financing count more often taken by people who don't have other major lines of credit. I have like a $25,000 available line from AmEx and could have just put the whole thing on there, or written a check for that matter (I paid the entire balance off the second I saw what they'd done), but I can see how people who were less flexible would have been easily taken in and then stuck with a high-interest loan as soon as they were tricked into default.

yeah, I have two retail cards through them... I'm closing them down as soon as I finish paying off the remaining balance. Fuck them. Fuck them in their ear.