Consumer complaint received 2020-10-30
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Fees or interest — Problem with fees
Company: HSBC NORTH AMERICA HOLDINGS INC. (FL)

In early XXXX, I opened a credit card at HSBC with zero interest for 18 months on balance transfers. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from the fraud department about some charges on the credit card. I called the bank and stated I had not made those charges because I had not received the credit card yet. I was told the credit card had been activated and the last four digits of my social had to been used to activate the card. I asked how could someone without the rest of my information activate a card? I could not get a straight answer from the call center. In addition a random phone number and email address had been added to the account in order for them to receive the pin codes to use the card. On XX/XX/XXXX, I filled a police report and a detective was assigned to my case the following day. I then called HSBC again, and gave them the police report ID number, the detectives name and number. I was told HSBC had begun the investigation on the matter. The following week I was informed by the detective they had found the perpetrator and there was a warrant for his arrest. HSBC was informed immediately, however at this point the detective still had not received a call from the bank. I continued to call to find out the status of my claim but no one could give me answers. In XXXX, I received a letter from HSBC stating I had not made my payments and I would be sent to collections. I called them immediately wondering where my fraud case stood and letting them know that these charges were not mine. I was informed the letter was sent by mistake and I was transferred to customer service. I spoke to XXXX and shared with her my situation and asked if I was now able to transfer my balance onto the new card? She told me that my 60 day grace period had ended and I would be paying interest. I told her I felt this was their fault for lack of due diligence and if there was anything she could do? Otherwise, the card would be useless to me. She looked into it and told me she would have to speak to the " people in the background '' and she would give me a call back. A couple days later XXXX returned my call and said they would honor the initial deal and I could get my balance transfer for 18 months at with no interest. I then transferred the money onto the account. I believed my problem was solved at that point, it wasn't. I have had to call several times every month requesting the interest would be removed from my account. I get different answers every time, some say my grace period had ended therefore the interest can't be taken off. Others have promised to look into it and call me back, no one calls me back. The last three phone calls have been in the last three weeks. I have requested to speak to a supervisor since the call center has their hands tied. The last supervisor I spoke to XXXX said she would call be back it would probably early the following week, never heard back. I called back this past monday and spoke to a gentleman who told me " he would call me back by wednesday latest ''. He was going to find out why XXXX had not returned my call but he will call me back with answers. I told him I was over this issue and it needed to be resolved. I didn't understand how I needed to repeat my story every time I called, did they not have notes on my account and how is it XXXX was able to fix my issue back in XXXX but for the last six months I have had to contact them to fix an issue that was supposedly resolved. HSBC dropped the ball from the very beginning starting with allowing the person who stole my card add a phone number and an email to the account when the card was activated. Since then the poor customer service and lack of resolving my issue is incredibly frustrating and unnecessary.