HBSC - Orchard Bank HSBC Card Services How do they get away with this? Schaumburg, Illinois

Okay, here we go again. Abusive scumbaggery by the worst kind of crook, legitimate banks/credit card companies. I have questionable credit because of a bankruptcy (no one to blame but myself on that one) but because of this, I am exposed to the world of predatory lending and this company is the most egregious example of it I have seen.

First, to keep an account open with a $500 limit or cap, I am required to pay a $70+ annual fee. On top of that, I am charged a "finance charge" averaging about $12 per month. So I paid them $30 in December and used the card on a couple of occasions, with the total being less than the $30 payment I made.

The finance charge hits on the 4th of January and puts me over my limit about $8, which triggers a $30 over limit charge. Doing the math, I am paying roughly $140 per year just to cover the finance charges, then another $78 for the annual fee. This means that I am paying almost 50% of my balance each year to keep the account open, because I keep a running balance near my limit, plus all the little stupid fees they try to tack on like the over limit charge.

So I call them to try and rectify the situation and I am on the phone first with a clueless nincompoop who I can barely understand, probably offshore somewhere. Then I escalate and I am on the phone with a total automaton who keeps referring to the letter of the law in my credit card agreement that I signed and basically telling me to F myself in professional language. This is despite the fact that I have been a customer of theirs for several years.

The bottom line is that this is the result of lawmakers being in the pockets of these criminals and writing legislation that allows these kinds of abuses to run rampant. I am starting here and telling this story to anyone who will listen. Remember that these are the same people getting huge federal bailouts because of their own moronic financial mistakes. People who have had similar experiences should stand up and say enough, I refuse to take it in the behind from these bottom dwelling greed factories we call credit card companies.