Updated 11/22/2020: WARNING -- BEFORE DOING ANY BUSINESS WITH HSBC I ENCOURAGE YOU TO READ MY FOLLOW UP POST: HSBC Bank USA - Read This Before Doing Any Business - Account Holds - Bad Business Practices
OLD POST:
I've decided to switch my deposits over to HSBC and establish a Premier relationship as I was not happy about a 5/24 CLI decision by Chase (more about it in this post) . One month after my direct deposit hit, I was at 740+ (FICO; EQ Pull; will update with letter) and decided to pull the trigger and try my luck with their credit card. I already have another credit card with them, HSBC Gold Mastercard, opened around 8 months ago with a $3,000 CL. Approved for $21,500 (14.99%). 18/24, 3 inquiries, AoA: 9m. Highest cc card 10k; Highest loan 12k. $800/50k available credit on all accounts. MOREOVER,
Approved for a personal loan (same day as the cc application) for $30k with a 5.99% interest which is pretty competitive to credit unions in my opinion. Their loan approval platform is the same technology used by Avant with the same risk scores. Basically it does the work for them throughout the whole loan application process; they just offer the loan and interest are way better than Avant!
BEWARE OF THE FOLLOWING
Shortly after my first check deposit to my checking account, the checking account was BLOCKED. I was told if you deposit a check into your checking with mobile deposit it triggers some of a fraud and additional review of your account meaning that you would not be able to use the account for 5 business days (very anal about that 5 day mark). I was told this is normal because of the nature of the deposit being mobile. Also if you pay over the limit your account also automatically ends up in their Fraud Department because "HSBC consideres overpaying your account as fraud". If you are considering switching over, do your research on the HSBC Fraud Department. You get completely LOCKED; you are not able to withdraw money, use your debit card, receive any additional deposits or make any ACH debits or regular purchases using your debit card. It's basically JAIL TIME if you end up there -- all of your accounts get LOCKED and your calls are automatically routed to their Fraud Team which is in India. Sometimes this extends to your CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT depending on the "hold" type and tier. They will also put a hold on your first credit card payment as to "verify the funds" and may put holds multiple times (had 6 holds as of now across multiple accounts; credit cards, checkings etc.). They will also put a "HOLD" if you charge large amounts or if you deal with same merchants; just so weird. JUST FYI! ;-) ;-)
