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

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"In order to make money solely on swipe fees, your customers must have a high throughput, and you have to push as many customers as possible into receiving electronic bills and and making electronic payments.

If one of those legs falls, life if most of your customers have very low credit limits, it makes it hard to make a buck just off swipe fees."

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They are certainly making a lot more off me use of the card in swipe fees than interest

The rep didnt seem to be worried about the interest at all. He was much moreso in that I repay quickly enough...which tends to make me think that they probably are making a bit of money in swipe fees rather than interest.

I saw that the fed is...or is trying to....get the swipe fees limited to something like 12 cents per swipe. I wonder how that will affect CC companies.

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Well, if that happens we all need to just grab our ankles. 

[Anonymous]

"In order to make money solely on swipe fees, your customers must have a high throughput, and you have to push as many customers as possible into receiving electronic bills and and making electronic payments.

If one of those legs falls, life if most of your customers have very low credit limits, it makes it hard to make a buck just off swipe fees."

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[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"Hard to say exactly why they are bailing out.  But it has been in the works for a long time now, I think.  It has been at least a year -- maybe more -- where they have not given any CLIs and then have instituted more AFs.  A lot of people have $300 limits and $59 AFs.

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Sounds about right.

I didnt have the annual fee, but my liimit in my HSBC card was $300.

I told them to raise it or close it. They chose the latter.

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Almost in the same boat. 

I've kept mine to pay a couple of small bills each month.  With no AF I figure I'll let them live.

[Anonymous]

"Well, if that happens we all need to just grab our ankles."

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I wonder if they all would start charging an annual fee at that point. Or upping APR's.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

"Well, if that happens we all need to just grab our ankles."

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I wonder if they all would start charging an annual fee at that point. Or upping APR's.

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I'm not sure what exactly they'd do, but they will do something.  And it will cost us money.

My guess is that they will attack checking accounts as they are the most vulnerable to fee increases.  Before they up APRs, my guess is that AFs will become more common and / or perks will be scaled back.   

[Anonymous]

Hopefully its the perks. I can do without them any way. Especially if it means paying an annual fee. I'll drop every card that starts one.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hopefully its the perks. I can do without them any way. Especially if it means paying an annual fee. I'll drop every card that starts one.

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You and me both!

It used to be that good credit risks were subsidized by the fees and such that poor credit risks paid.  If I have to start paying an AF then I will drop the card.

[Gray]

The upcoming swipe-fee cap of .12 will apply only to debit cards, not credit cards.

Banks will likely try to incentivize people to use credit cards (or using debit cards using the "credit" payment option--where you sign), via better rewards, because there will be no cap on credit-card swipe fees. Merchants, on the other hand, will start encouraging debit-card use, because those transactions will be inexpensive to process.

[ShootingStar]

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]

[ReVeLaTeD]

FYI, the preselector defaults to the secured card, and the website no longer lists credit products of any kind.  Only deposit products.

http://www.hsbccreditcard.com/ecare/homepage/creditcards

HSBC is dead serious on this one. 

I have to admit, their credit cards aren't the greatest, but HSBC Auto Loans was probably the best auto loan company I'd worked with before I joined a local credit union.

[ShootingStar]

I received an emailed survey from HSBC late last night, wanting feedback on their credit card products.  Not sure if they're doing this for someone else or themselves!  Nevertheless, I provided very candid feedback.  They were interested if I run  most of my charges through another credit card, and why (i.e., no annual fee, higher CL, rewards, etc.).

Will be interesting to see what happens!