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HSBC North America Complaint - Um....Really? - Gold Mastercard

Gold Mastercard - Complaint
Review by Livebyexample on 2010-12-10
I have had a Gold MC for longer than I can remember, have always paid my bill on time and have spent and paid off tens of thousands of dollars. I received a letter to make a purchase on my $11,000 limit, zero balance account or my account would be closed. I meant to and was in the middle of moving from Georgia to California and never made the purchase. They consequently closed my account, my debt to income ratio went down, my FICO plummeted and my credit was strongly negatively affected. I am very dissatisfied about that but rely on my other credit cards who have not cancelled on a customer who has never been late, paid tons of interest over the years and always carried the card on him when leaving the house. I see MC applications online and in the mail and always ignore them as they have turned their backs on me regardless of how it affected my credit. I have seen the news stories that relate how credit card companies consider customers who don’t pay much interest and never any late fees to be the real deadbeats since the company doesn’t make much money on them.
Comments:
Posted by trmn8r on 2010-12-11:
I don't believe those stories are true, because I have never in 23 years of regular credt card use have paid a fee or any interest.

Yet when I have called, I have been treated wonderfully. Several times a CSR has said "Mr. XYZ, you are one of our best customers!" which I attributed to the fact I use my card often and always pay it off.

Credit card companies make 2-3 percent on each purchase made. That's a lot of money.

They warned you to use the card, but you didn't.
Posted by Fufu487 on 2010-12-11:
What happens a lot of times is when an account is not used it gets flagged dormant. Especially at a balance of zero. If dormant for so long the account may close itself. They called to warn you to use the card or it may become closed. I'm interested in what kind of time frame they gave you to make your purchase.
Posted by rockfishing on 2010-12-11:
You are the one who is at fault, not HSBC. They gave you fair warning to which you chosed to ignored. When you have a credit card you agree to it's terms and conditions. HSBC terminated you because you ignored them. I can't blame a company closing an account with an 11K limit that is ignored.
Posted by tnchuck100 on 2010-12-11:
They told you to do X or Y would happen. You did not do X. They did Y. End of story.

In fact most companies don't even warn you at all. Take American Express for example. You find out about the account being closed when a purchase is declined.
Posted by momsey on 2010-12-11:
You ignored them, they did what they said they'd do.
Posted by madconsumer on 2010-12-11:
if a card is not used for a certain amount of time, they close the accounts. odd but true.
Posted by NickL11354 on 2010-12-11:
The credit card issuer was probably surprised because most people would jump at the chance for $11,000 in available credit. Think about all the designer clothes, electronics from Apple & Best Buy you can get for $11,000?? How else do you think they are being bought other than most people charging thousands of dollars on credit for which the bank collects 15% - 25% APR (plus merchant fees) and the consumer spends 2, 5, or 15 years paying the bill
Posted by Inat on 2010-12-11:
happens to me all the time - you gotta use the credit to keep it! Buy a tank of gas and pay it off.
Posted by trmn8r on 2010-12-11:
madconsumer -> It isn't really odd. It costs money to maintain an account, and it doesn't do the bank any good to have a customer who is able to borrow 11K but it borrowing 0.
Posted by Fufu487 on 2010-12-11:
It's also for consumer safety (though I'm probably going to get reamed out for stating it). Imagine you have a 9K credit card you forgot about, haven't used in 6 or 7 months, that gets frauded somewhere down the line. If you aren't watching the account, as inactivity would suggest, it could receive fraud charges and not even notice for months. You won't believe how often people throw out statements in the mail because they think it's junk, knowing they haven't used the card. Banks have a right to protect themselves.

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