Meya - sleeping with the other guy, I feel a headache coming on!

Yup, and here is the link with all the info http://www2.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/11-13-2006/0004472899&EDATE =
Seems to me that they dealing with international business (consumers). I read on one site "Wells Fargo provided $25 million to The Robbins Co., a Solon, Ohio-based manufacturer of underground-construction machinery that will help build an irrigation tunnel beneath a wildlife refuge in India"!
If it is the HSBC Bank that I am thinking about, I remembered when they first built the bank on Mission st in San Francisco, it was around 2004 or 2005. The construction noise was running us crazy in class. When I read the "Coming Soon" sign which stated HSBC bank, I was like, "Woe, is it because they wanted to move closer to me to make sure I don't run from them...lolz!

Try this... banking has it's interesting twists and here is one for you'all where Wells Fargo Bank NA has a trade bank located on the west coast (San Francisco, CA) and has partnered with HSBC Global Bank called the Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank. Take a big gulp. You never say never...! :

HSBC is crap, they are the worst bank ever, It was my first card, low limit of $300 got a $100 increase after two years, and another $100 last month.. had a fixed rate of 9.90% now they jacked it up, and once again jacked it up AGAIN that's twice in three months, never EVER been late, always paid tons more the the minimum and they jack my rate to 14.99% you got to be kidding me, I will never pay them a dime, I will use the card once in a while and pay in full, they won't make a cent off my now, before I used to carry balances but with that rate jack, I will NEVER.

Hsbc is terrible and don't ever think they will help you out, because they never will..

oh and I am being charged a annual fee for a $300 now $500 card which is $59 got half waived last year. If they don't waive it all when my AF comes I will close the account, who cares if it hurts my score.

Great question and NOT one person could answer the question and I have been digging. The HSBC American Express Card with Plus Rewards totally disappeared from everywhere several months back. Even the HSBC reps can't find it or explain it. Seems it went off market right about the time the US started to have problems. Not sure if it was an AX or HSBC thing. HSBC still issues Platinum, Gold and Green American Express Cards outside the United States. You would think if they were going to setup and rehab a card such as the HSBC American Express Plus Rewards Card they would promote it. Maybe the economy?! One rep read an e-mail and it referred to their being 4,000 such cards and 1,000 of them needed to migrate over to the new website. Hmm... that's all the cards they issued??? If you were going to discontinue a card why would you breath new life into it? Doesn't make sense. Actually the card was only on the market for 18+ months. I just wonder.

Oh good, so for the most part the changes are in your favor then. I wonder what made them change? They used to advertise their Amex on the HSBC (USA) website but now they just have the MasterCards.

Colonative - the letter was 21 inches long and 8 1/2 wide ... Yeah... It said nothing about the reasons for moving me from one processing complex to another. Gave a change in terms and conditions that followed the law (nothing strange). What did happen however is they sent me a total access to all of American Express with website (24 hours service) and all the other American Express benefits that were NEVER included or at least explained anywhere before. I explored them and was blown away at what they now gave us for true American Express access. It really became an American Express Card. Before it was a question. The part that is not 24 hours is the customer service related to the actual account payments or questions related NOT to American Express. Somehow American Express is involved in processing too. HSBC has American Express Platinum, Gold and Green Cards issued to customers outside of the United States. They also have Gold Visa and MasterCards that have special rewards and preferred access NOT granted to US customers. Very interesting. I am impressed by the travel, shopping, dining, special promos and emergency services that we have all through American Express (not HSBC). ATM access is totally through American Express. The card acts like an AX not a Visa or Mastercard anymore. I did review their HSBC Premier World Mastercard and its benefits with reps where you have to have a minimum of $100,000 in HSBC world banking relationships. Amazing what HSBC is doing everywhere else in the world BUT the United States! On the HSBC side they continued my 1.25 points (HSBC Rewards Plus program) for every dollar spent and that is available to the AX side. A lot to absorb. Unfortunately the HSBC customer side of this is still sub-standard. The customer service reps did inform me there were significant world changes taking place as HSBC restructures world operations. Elsewhere (outside the United States) it seems HSBC has exclusive, impressive and high level programs that are not filtering to us.

What???? Did they give send you a letter of explaination as to why your account number changed? That seems ridiculous and costly to them. Some of the other changes (ceased balance transfers/checks) are probably the result of the new laws coming on Monday night.....

I read somewhere (I apologize for not having the correct source) that HSBC's shareholders and business leaders back home in the UK were not happy with the Household acquisition and exposure to sub prime credit. I also read that Neiman Marcus was not happy with HSBC issuing their cards.

That is very interesting that as an American Express product they would not have 24 hour customer service...I wonder how Amex feels about that....I think the only card I have that doesnt have 24 hour customer serivce is Kohl's. Maybe Macy's but I don't remember.

A few weeks ago I got my replacement AT&T Universal MasterCard issued by Citibank. I had to call to activate it and their system made me speak to a representative. Yeah, he was located in India. I could not understand a (expletive) word he said! He wanted me to do a balance transfer at 1.9% APR etc etc and then tried to sell me credit insurance. Finally to get him off the phone I agreed to a $500 check made out to me. I, of course destroyed the check and the $500 available credit will be returned after 30 days of check issuance. The outsourcing has really gotten old.

But yeah, if you have a letter from HSBC regarding these changes, I would like to hear what it said.

The HSBC world is changing.

Except on new accounts where they will do balance transfers, HSBC is not doing convenience checks (it is on their website) and they will not do balance transfers (got this today). Also, they are moving, closing and reissuing accounts. My HSBC American Express Plus Rewards credit card account got closed out of the HSBC www.hsbccreditcard.com (24 hour telephone account access and customer service) and moved to www.accountcentralonline.com with a new account number and so on (had to start from scratch) with customer service (telephone) only available from 6am to 11pm weekdays and reduced hours on weekends. Hope they didn't change everything in the credit bureau. The new website has some great features but only one bank account for payment permitted and lots of pushing of insurances. Also, the customer service representatives were less than great (surprise). Outsourced so I was hard on them. They need to speak understandably (I am no longer flexible with the lack of clarity that seems to follow outsourcing). HSBC trys on your call-in repeatedly to push/sell insurance so I just kept pressing "0" to bull my way through their nonsense (sales by computer until live person who also trys to sell insurance). GADS...![/quote]H[/U]ongkong and Shanghai Banking Company now headquartered in the United Kingdom. Their real entry for the everyday consumer was through their acquistion of Household Finance Company which got them a station in the United States and many sub-prime account holders.

Congrats Faith! Your hard work is finally paying off! The card you got approved is a prime HSBC card, definitely not subprime.

I have the Orchard Bank MasterCard (for about 4 years now) with a credit limit of $2,150. Applied tonight for the HSBC Platinum MC with HSBC Rewards Plus Program since they lowered my Household Bank 2% MC earlier this month from $2,000 to $300 (said it wasn't personal just business) and I ended up closing it, along with the low limit BB MC ($500). When I did the pre-approval process it came up with 4 different HSBC (not Household or Orchard) cards to choose from so I chose the Rewards Plus Program. I was instantly approved for $5,000. I kept counting the zeros to make sure I was seeing right..

$5K from HSBC as an initial credit line is amazing, you should go get yourself a lotto ticket!

I have the Orchard Bank MasterCard (for about 4 years now) with a credit limit of $2,150. Applied tonight for the HSBC Platinum MC with HSBC Rewards Plus Program since they lowered my Household Bank 2% MC earlier this month from $2,000 to $300 (said it wasn't personal just business) and I ended up closing it, along with the low limit BB MC ($500). When I did the pre-approval process it came up with 4 different HSBC (not Household or Orchard) cards to choose from so I chose the Rewards Plus Program. I was instantly approved for $5,000. I kept counting the zeros to make sure I was seeing right...

Hey hey hey... I used the HSBC Card pre-qualifier and it said you should apply. I did and now I have an HSBC American Express Rewards Card (really like it). Got brave to see what else and the pre-qualifier said your good to go for another card and I did, DENIED! Hey what's the story...? They said I couldn't have more than two HSBC Credit Cards. Yes it can be stressful and they took hard credit bureau hits. Today I have an HSBC Platinum MC Cash Rewards (really like it) with $6K CL and the HSBC AX with a CL of $8K so good credit lines do exist. It only took one year on the HSBC AX but the MC took three years starting at $1K. Hope you get a sense for it. Can't guarantee approval. Have had real good experience with HSBC. In the old days I had Household Bank and Orchard Bank Credit Cards. The limits were $1,800 to $800 and that was it! :

HSBC Bank is one of the top 10 financial services organizations in the US
with assets approaching $300 billion. Their assets include Direct Merchants Bank; as well as Household which provides Orchard Bank credit cards. HSBC offers its 3 million customers access to a multitude of financial services; including instant approval cards with low interest, 0% APR and rewards.

I agree, especially after watching Good Morning America. There was a lady asking, if she has 4 credit cards and want to close all except 1, would her score be affected by it. Well of course the response was yes, but.. it would only be affected temporarily. So, she had to weigh, keeping the cards and sock drawing it (which will be closed by consumer), charging and paying off every month, call in and ask for cld's (yeah right), or let the scores drop and come back up on their own. There are options to weigh here, but (I know some may disagree) I am choosing to close.

Orchard is my oldest trade and I am holding on to them for future cards to see my history. I would rather let them see that I have a history of keeping on time payments, than to let them see with a history of high util (my blame), low limits since date of opening, low limit of credit cards instead of a ton of them, and that "I" closed accounts to prevent (or eliminate) the risk of debt, and to balance out the worse case scenario

Income
- Available Credit
+ Debit
= Total income