HSBC Selling or Shutting Down US Credit Cards (Orchard, GM Card, Best Buy, HSBC Cards, etc.).

[haulingthescoreup]

IMO, HSBC's problems started when they first decided to get into the US market by buying existing portfolios of not-so-good credit products (Household, Juniper) and consumers. If they had started out marketing to those with stronger credit (as they do everywhere else in the world), they might have done better through the recession.

I'm still stumped as to why they didn't launch a set of US credit products targeted more toward the 680+ crowd (just picking a number there; please don't everyone get offended.) They would have had a more diverse portfolio. Barclays has done a much better job in this area, although even they don't seem to have a straight-forward bank card that is tougher to qualify for.

HSBC left themselves wide open in the area of credit risk.

[Wolf3]

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@ShootingStar wrote:

My bank encourages its customers to run their debit cards as credit cards because it prevents a thief from gaining access to your pin number.  They had to replace cards several times in a row a couple of years ago, and that's when they attempted to convince customers to not use their pins if they could help it.

{edited for my atrocious spelling]

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I think credit swipe fee is higher and definitely will be in the future( new federal rules).   That is the main reason they want you to run it as credit.