Complaint Review: Orchard Bank HSBC - Salinas California

Banks prey on us not keeping up on the fine print. Your full credit card terms used to be one page, and are now PAGES and PAGES, not to benefit you but -you guessed it- the corporations. People, we need to live below our means and PASSIONATELY focus on paying these companies off an get them off our backs for absorbanent fees and interest. You can be savvy and with solid credit reputations and under intense scrutiny, make them work for well for you, but orchard bank is one of the worst in my experience.

Chris you obviously did not read my letter carefully, even tho you said that you read the cardmember agreement carefully. I said about 80% of card holders don't read the cardmember agreement so that would put you in the 20% that do read it and I can not quote you where it says they can raise the APR at anytime but believe me it is in there I have read many of that banks disclosures and other banks alos they are all pretty much the same. And you oboviously did not read it carefully because EVERY credit card cardmember agreement says they can raise your APR at any time at their discretion for no reason. Most banks have been hit hard by losses in the sub-prime mortgage market so they make up those losses by increasing the APR on credit cards they have issued. It doesn't have anything to do with how much your balance is they are doing it typically across the board to all of their cards no matter how good a customer, that is one reason I don't work there anymore because of their unethical practices.

Do you have documentation for the times that you were charged late fees on payments that you paid timely? A class action is being initiated against Orchard Bank. If you are interested please contact me

Paul, My comment is in response to you assumption that we do not read the Terms of service. First let me assure you that prior to accepting the offer from HSBC I read every inch of the contract to ensure that I fully understand what I was obligating myself to. And I challenge you to show me where in the terms of service it states that my interest rate can be changed because of a change to my credit score. Especially when the only change to my credit is that my credit score has significantly improved to the point that the second card I had with HSBC was a 0% interest rate for the first 12 months and then 6.9 after the 12 months. That certainly in indicative a credit improvement, not decline! The good news for me is that both account are now closed with zero balances, so HSBC attempt to squeeze more money out of me resulted in their lose across the board. I will say that I do disagree with the original poster in the aspect of not paying a valid debit. From my point of view it makes absolutely no since to ruin your own credit in spite of a credit card company that really could care less. They will write off you debit and move on their next victim.

Every credit card company sends a disclosure with the original credit card, this lists all of the fees and how they can be charged. If you, like over 80% of consumers fail to read this disclosure you are agreeing to pay those fees. Have you heard of Buyer Beware? If the company sends the rules to their card before you start using the card and you chose not to read them shame on you. You entered into a legal contract with this company the first time you used the card. I don't agree with their practices that is why I don't work there anymore but YOU WERE given fair warning. And to not pay your bill is breach of contract in a court of law, and it is much harder to get negative items off your credit report then to pay your bill and avoid having them go on your credit report in the first place.

FYI Orchard will continue to call and and aggressively collect the debt until you change your phone number. Asking them verbally to stop calling WILL NOT get them to stop calling. You must make this demand in writing and by certified letter. Sometimes even that doesn't work. Texas is a "no judgment" state and they cannot collect, but in most other states they will consider it a write off after 90 days. If the debt is large and they think you are deliberately not paying for other than not having the funds, they will sue. Therefore, if they send you a settlement offer--usually after it has gone to collections--you may want to seriously consider it.

This is not a ripoff. As its states in the cardholder agreement, if your account goes over the limit (fees/interest) then they will raise your limit to the default apr. I always leave enough of an available credit amount to cover any payment protection, or interest accumulation just in case a company decides to do that because it's all considered in your credit limit. They aren't specific regarding that on the agreement; that particular is something that you have to learn by trial and error. As far as telling them not to call you; their solicitations/sales departments are required to stop calling if you tell them not to. If it's an attempt to collect a debt, however, they are well within their rights to do so. Either that or take you to court which they will win when they pull out that cardholder agreement.

I too just received a notice that my Terms with HSBC would be changed due to a recent review of my credit. I was very concerned that something might have happened with my credit so I logged on to my credit monitoring service, True Credit and low and behold, HSBC has not made any inquiries since I established the account with them over a year ago. I've made every payment on time, and on most months I pay my balance in full and I'm being repaid with a 29.99% interest rate! Luckily I don't maintain much of a balance on this account, so I called them today and closed the account and will pay it off by the end of the month. I also hold another account, of which was not impacted by the APR increase, but I also closed that account and will pay it off at the end of the month. This company is a total bottom feeder who was trying to get more money out of me by laying that there was same change in my credit and hoping that I wouldn't read the notice. Well news flash HSBC. I did read the notice and closed all of my account because of it. I'll pay my balance in full and they will never get another dime out of me and I'll make sure to warn every person to come across to BEWARE!

I too have had my rate increased by Orchard Bank-but be thankful yours was only 26%-mine was raised to 29.9%! They claim it was a result of my credit report. Why do they think I took their lousy card to begin with? I had credit problems stemming from 2 job losses and needed a credit card. My credit has not gotten any worse than when I first received the card-as a matter of fact, it should be better-and I have a good payment record with them. If things are as you claim, it now means I am paying 29.9% interest on all of my previous purchases. Also, did you ever notice that if you take a cash advance on your card, it NEVER goes away? No matter how many payments you make, the amount is always there-and usually charged a higher percentage rate. Some of the things I read on this website that they have done to us is absolutely amazing!