Does anyone else have this card?

[jmbfl]

Does anyone else have, or have they heard of: 

HSBC / Direct Merchants Bank Master Card

I have had this card for years and can find no reference to it anywhere. I know Direct Merchants Bank issues the co-branded Discover Cards and is not that card!

[Anonymous]

I also have had this card for years.  Small CLI and lowered my IR about 6 mo's ago for me.  Never had problems with them.  Was 2 days late paying a couple of time several years back and they removed the late fee for me when I called them.  I thought that was really great!

[jmbfl]

My account was opened in Jan 2000. My credit line was initially $1000, then after a quite a few years raised to $1500 and a while later to $2000, both auto CLI's. It has been stalled at $2K for a long time. There a small annual fee - $30. The APR is high at 25.99% and that was not the initial rate. I think that was 18.99%, but I am not sure about that.

How was your APR reduced? Did you ask or was it done automatically? I'd like to do that and ditch the fee if I could. Otherwise no problems with the account.

[Anonymous]

I just called and said I wanted to close my account.  They asked why and I told them I had been a customer for a long time and was denied a CLI, had a high intest rate and there were better cards out there.  They made a counter offer to keep my business. 

[jmbfl]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I just called and said I wanted to close my account.  They asked why and I told them I had been a customer for a long time and was denied a CLI, had a high intest rate and there were better cards out there.  They made a counter offer to keep my business. 

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Was there a hard inquiry?

I am a little leering of doing this in the current climate. This card is actually very useful to me FICO-wise. I would have a problem without it reporting a zero balance. I might call and inquire on the basis that I might have to close it when the next AF rolls around if they don't give me something now.

[jmbfl]

The lack of responses in this thread speaks volumes. This is not a bad card, yet nobody has it. There is zero info about it at HSBC's website. If you run a web search you come up with nothing. I doubt it is offered any more.