HSBC is run by a team of space monkeys

I thought I would share some of my recent experiences with the lovely HSBC credit department. I have done AoR's for mom and dad with them and here are some of their screwy results.

Dad (Credit Score = 795 ; HHI = 202,000 ; Has big existing credit lines else ware)
HSBC Platinum - Instant approval, CL =$600. Yes, you read this correctly. In a single swoop, HSBC has allocated multiple hundreds of dollars to be used at will. I called the next day to speak with a CSR. Was first told that there is nothing they can do, but if we use our card responsibly, they could give us a CLI in 6 months. I told her I've had dinners that cost more than $600 and this line was completely unreasonable. She then said I can put in a CLI request now, but it will be another hard pull. I retorted, you have my credit report from exactly 20 hours ago, there is no reason for another hard pull. I told her this is ridiculous and I wanted to speak to the credit issuing department. Transferred to them (during business hours only). They said that the given CL was correct. I told them to take another look at my application. They put me on hold for two minutes, came back and said:

“I appoligize sir, we have reevaluated your application without another hard pull (they say that credit reports are valid for 60 days after pulling), and can immediately increase your credit line to $12,500.” I tried for 15k, but this was close enough so I took it. Morons.

Round two…

Mom: (Credit Score = 749; HHI = $202,000 ; Has big existing credit lines else ware)
HSBC Platinum - Instant approval no CL given. Then checked status online and it said denied. Got a letter saying "Could not verify information" (this is despite the instant approval I was given) Will call about this today.

HSBC GM Flex - Instant approval, CL = $700.WTF round 2? Called in on this before my dad’s CLI request, and wasn’t as successful over the phone with instant results, but they are mailing me a CLI notice that did not require a new hard pull. I did not speak directly to the credit department (wish I would have now after doing my dad’s CLI request with them). Hopefully they’ll up it to at least 7k, otherwise there will be another phone call to the credit department.

I have seen this issue with others too (see markkundinger’s) thread. Anyway, for those doing an AoR, you may want to drop HSBC to the bottom of your priorities unless you will be happy with a sub 1k line. Anyone else experiencing these recent results?

EDIT O ya, and for myself, I originally got a 2k HSBC GM Flex card a couple months ago. I called right after getting it and was able to CLI to a massive 3k right then (with a fair amount of hassel and being transferred 4 times).

UPDATE: So I called them back about my mom:

HSBC Platinum - Yes, I was approved, but apparantly one of the "fraud questions" to verify my identity was not answered correctly and now I am denied. Spoke to three people including a supervisor, there is nothing they can do to get me this card without applying again (sure, I'll suffer another hard inquiry for another $300 CL!).

HSBC GM Flex - My CLI was denied b/c I haven't activated this card yet. The supervisor also said my mom is NOT going to get a CLI. I asked why and stated our household info and BELIEVE ME THIS IS WHAT THE HSBC SUPERVISOR SAID:

WE DO NOT CONSIDER HER FICO SCORE WHEN APPROVING FOR CREDIT
WE DO NOT CONSIDER HER HOUSEHOLD INCOME WHEN APPROVING FOR CREDIT
WE DO NOT CONSIDER HER CURRENT BALANCES ON OTHER CARDS WHEN APPROVING FOR CREDIT

"Your mom has too much credit already and we don't care about her household income, therefore, that is why we gave such a small line".

I am dead serious on these exact comments. I wrote down her name and employee number and told her I'm writing a letter to their corporate offices about what she told me (which I'm not, and I've already shredded this statement with her info). At least I've squeezed a total of 15.5k (between me and my dad) out of them that will produce a little return for my efforts. Now I am going to let the monkeys eat their banannas.

Oddly enough I had the opposite, with relatively short credit history and not even that high of an income, HSBC gave me a $10.5K line right away! I also have a $2k household bank card, and another $2k discover card issued by them... I was totally expecting for few hundred buck lines, don't know what happened, lol.

Of course Capital One denied for for applying for an "average" credit card, then I applied again when I got a pre approval in the mail, only $500! And I only wanted the cap one for 0% forex, so I guess I'm not crying over this one.

wiredspider, what is the discover card you have issued by hsbc?

hey, i got the same card too. best choice besides those 2% ones, but i won't touch those.

The wierd thing is that I personally received a $2,500 line from HSBC GM flex (which is still low, but decent for me personally). My primary credit history is only 1.5 years old, and while my score is 759, my dads was almost 800 and we reported the same household income. He has about 35 years of perfect credit history. As you can see, they thought he was only orignally eligible for a $600 CL, but then instantly upped it to 12.5k after I harassed them.

Again, like my title, I think HSBC is really just a team of space monkeys who have no idea what they are doing.

BankofGreed said: Why bother even applying for any of their cards? Unless they are offering 2% on all purchases, its not worth the hassle.I just did it b/c it was another bank with a 0% BT offer to add to my AoR. Next time I would definately move them to the very end of the list so that thier inquiry doesn't hurt my chance with a better offer somewhere else.

HSBC customer services are really a bunch of alien monkeys! For last 6 months, I have been trying to get the checking account $50 bonus and they keep putting on hold. One branch after another also said "I don't know about this promotion". I think they move the service lines to Monaco, Turkey, or India... They all speak strange monkey language. So good luck! I still got few dollars left in HSBC. I wonder they will allow me to close or they will charge me monthly monkey service.

Well, i got the cash or fly card about 5 months ago from HSBC w/ 23K limit. I also had the GM a while ago w/ 6K limit.

kittenmittens said: I don't know why anybody applies for the HSBC GM card. The highest CL I've seen is $2k and nobody's able to increase it.

My credit line for HSBC GM card is much higher (7K). When it was about 5.5K, I asked for a CLI (due to a juicy BT offer), but they didn't provide it. A few months into the BT, they raised the CL. It is the lowest CL I have -- excluding CL on cards that were I did allocations from.

MikeR397 said: I thought I would share some of my recent experiences with the lovely HSBC credit department. I have done AoR's for mom and dad with them and here are some of their screwy results.

Dad (Credit Score = 795 ; HHI = 202,000 ; Has big existing credit lines else ware)
HSBC Platinum - Instant approval, CL =$600. Yes, you read this correctly. In a single swoop, HSBC has allocated multiple hundreds of dollars to be used at will. I called the next day to speak with a CSR. Was first told that there is nothing they can do, but if we use our card responsibly, they could give us a CLI in 6 months. I told her I've had dinners that cost more than $600 and this line was completely unreasonable. She then said I can put in a CLI request now, but it will be another hard pull. I retorted, you have my credit report from exactly 20 hours ago, there is no reason for another hard pull. I told her this is ridiculous and I wanted to speak to the credit issuing department. Transferred to them (during business hours only). They said that the given CL was correct. I told them to take another look at my application. They put me on hold for two minutes, came back and said:

“I appoligize sir, we have reevaluated your application without another hard pull (they say that credit reports are valid for 60 days after pulling), and can immediately increase your credit line to $12,500.” I tried for 15k, but this was close enough so I took it. Morons.

Round two…

Mom: (Credit Score = 749; HHI = $202,000 ; Has big existing credit lines else ware)
HSBC Platinum - Instant approval no CL given. Then checked status online and it said denied. Got a letter saying "Could not verify information" (this is despite the instant approval I was given) Will call about this today.

HSBC GM Flex - Instant approval, CL = $700.WTF round 2? Called in on this before my dad’s CLI request, and wasn’t as successful over the phone with instant results, but they are mailing me a CLI notice that did not require a new hard pull. I did not speak directly to the credit department (wish I would have now after doing my dad’s CLI request with them). Hopefully they’ll up it to at least 7k, otherwise there will be another phone call to the credit department.

I have seen this issue with others too (see markkundinger’s) thread. Anyway, for those doing an AoR, you may want to drop HSBC to the bottom of your priorities unless you will be happy with a sub 1k line. Anyone else experiencing these recent results?

i'm just curious, but when u call customer service, do u just impersonate your mom and dad?

Do not know much about HSBC credit card practices but love their online savings. Over 5% now and still have some savings with them at over 6%.Do not think there is much of a minimum. Only been with them about 9 months(savings only)but great security and quick response.

BankofGreed said: Why bother even applying for any of their cards? Unless they are offering 2% on all purchases, its not worth the hassle.I signed up for that stupid card and have freakin' great credit and was denied! HSBC sucks!

akor said: MikeR397 said: As you can see, they thought he was only orignally eligible for a $600 CL, but then instantly upped it to 12.5k after I harassed them.


This is actually can be another method of instant CLI - if you just call them up right after you got approved and complain about the low CL.
By the way, how did you "harass" them? What specificly did you say that made them raise CL from 6K to 12.5K?First, please notice that the original CL was for 600 DOLLARS, not 6k (so it went from $600 to $12,500) For my dad, I just kept repeating "Please go look at my credit report and application again for a reevaluation." I said this exactly four times before they put me on hold for two minutes, came back and offered $12,500.

Also, for me personally, I did call in for most cards about a instant CLI right after getting approved. I was successful with a few of the smaller ones such as:

HSBC GM FLEX from 2.5k to 3k

National City from 3k to 5k

BoA from 5k to 7k

PNC from 3k to 5k

AMEX (crack button, obviously!) (2.6k to 10.6k and 3.6k to 24.9k)

The rest were no go, but these was a significant increase for me personally.

The space monkeys is also notorious for being CLOSING POLICES. My HSBC credit card as well as my fiance's are closed due to inactivity although we use them sparingly every couple of months. With other issuers, they won't close your account if you use it at least once a year. How do they expect us to put the card in our wallet with measle credit line and expect to use it everday (which translate to higher utilization rate)?

Edit: Found THIS in hot deal forum. New mascot for HSBC?

Alcibiades said: UncleJr said: i'm just curious, but when u call customer service, do u just impersonate your mom and dad ?Maybe OP has an effeminate voiceHaha. I just call saying I'm calling on my mom/dad's behalf, then let the CSR verify this with my mom/dad. It is more of an issue with my mom since my voice doesn't quite cut it for a 50 year old woman.

OP, in my understanding HSBC mostly targets subprime customers. Customers with good credit histories are not profitable for the banks that targets these customers. Watch the movie Maxed Out and you'll know what I mean.

I find HSBC to a good issuer. I got the Direct Merchants 5% card with a $25k CL and no doc's submitted. Then I applied for Premier card and got an instant $28k, Requested more and they bumped it to $35k. Then I wanted to close the Direct card and reallocate the CL to my Premier card. Was told I could not but my Premier rep said just close the other and he would bump my Premier Card by that $25k, He did that and I never even closed the Direct card. What's strange now is I still I have the Premier card, Even got the new upgrade on it, And I have about $10 in my HSBC savings

scott1961 said: I find HSBC to a good issuer. I got the Direct Merchants 5% card with a $25k CL and no doc's submitted. Then I applied for Premier card and got an instant $28k, Requested more and they bumped it to $35k. Then I wanted to close the Direct card and reallocate the CL to my Premier card. Was told I could not but my Premier rep said just close the other and he would bump my Premier Card by that $25k, He did that and I never even closed the Direct card. What's strange now is I still I have the Premier card, Even got the new upgrade on it, And I have about $10 in my HSBC savingsscott, I'm pretty sure what happened in your situation is that one of the monkeys accidentally dropped his bananna on the keyboard causing it to add two extra zeros to the end of your credit line.

If you have any HSBC issues, contact Diana Washington - diana.m.washington@us.hsbc.com

She is their BBB contact and threatening to report whatever issues you have to BBB will usually get things done. I just got a paid chargeoff deleted from all three reports with a quick email to her (after trying for almost a year to get it removed by various methods and constantly just getting the run around from them)

I agree with the previous posters about HSBC in that yes, they are making money for themselves and this is what a company is supposed to do (congrats to those who are profiting on buying thier stocks). When I insult them as a company, that is b/c they can't serve my personal needs and yes, this is mostly geared toward AOR arbitrage. So, this thread is indeed narrowly focused when I call them a team of space monkeys (but I also do think thier employees are idiots, maybe they have policies set by execs that make the company money, but if you have spoken to a CSR on the phone, you will likely agree that thier employees are idiots. Every CSR tells me something different and there is no consistency whatsoever. Not to mention, have you tried navigating through thier automated answering system to even speak to a CSR in the department you want?)

As for:nkling said: It is just too bad some people only know how to be an one track pony to make money out of AOR... sad... I assume you are not calling those who put all thier AOR $ in HYS sad. Yes, investing in stocks with this money can be a good idea if you know what you are doing AND can afford to lose this money. In my case, I'm a student, if I invest in the space monkeys and lose 20k on thier stock, that is 20k I cannot pay back once my 0% offers are expired. If you have a decent income/savings, then sure, put some of the $ into stocks and more risky investments than HYS if you are comfortable with that. This is just another form of leveraging your investments, but using leverage (such as buying on margin) is not for everyone. Just don't tote this out there that all those not taking advantage of these higher risk avenues are "sad" and "one trick ponies".

BankofGreed said: Why bother even applying for any of their cards? Unless they are offering 2% on all purchases, its not worth the hassle.Because like Pokemons... some of us HAVE TO CATCH THEM ALL.