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[Ryan-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hello arodr91-

Sarah from our Social Media team, will be reaching out to you regarding your concern. Thank you for your continued patience!

[Sarah-BBY Retired: Community Connector]

Hi arodr91,

Thank you for coming to us for assistance and I am very sorry to hear of the unfortunate circumstances involved.  As you may be aware, HSBC is a separate company from us whereby they provide credit card services to our customers, and for security as well as privacy reasons, we do not have direct access to or influence over their records, policies or procedures. 

However, while I cannot guarantee anything, I wanted to let you know that I am currently researching this matter further on your behalf and as soon as I have more information I will follow up with you again by private message.  So, please keep your eyes open for a “new message” alert in the upper right-hand corner of the page to follow shortly (when signed in).

Thanks again and have a great day,

[Bob_A]

AaronE said:  -

"I believe the CARD Act in 2009 changed the way the rate increases due to lates are dealt with" 

If that were true. It would certainly explain something. So I would greatly appreciate it if you could direct me to some specific, reliable source, for that claim.

I have used Google, and other resources, in a futile attempt to find confirmation of your claim. In fact, I have now spent more than 2 hours of my time reading through the Card Act, summaries of the Card Act, analysis of the card act, and interpretations of the card act, etc. etc. In a considerable, but futile, effort to find confirmation of your claim.

Neither can I find any reference to any other laws, or regulations, that would prohibit HSBC Bank from doing exactly what they have warned that they would do. If a Card holder is ever late with any one payment. A warning that they have written in very plain, and non ambivalent use, of the English language. And which has also been confirmed by many posts in these forums. By card holders reporting that they have been hit with retroactive interest just because they were late with only one payment. 

So, unless you can now direct me to specific confirmation of your claim, from a reliable source that I can personally confirm with my own eyes. Then, in the absence of your ability to provide verification for that claim. I would be left with no other choice available to me. Except to conclude that your statement is nothing more than another chorus, another example, of the fictional "Spin" that is intended to obfuscate the real issues.

I am hereby offering you the courtesy of an opportunity to provide actual verification of your claim. Before I comment further. 

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

This may not be a very official source but this is what he is referring to:

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/no-payment-no-interest-plan-deferred-credit-card-act-128...
Sudden rate hikes banned. Under the Credit CARD Act, card issuers -- including retailers that sponsor deferred interest payment plans -- can no longer penalize consumers for being just a few days late with a payment by abruptly hiking their rates. Consumers must be at least 60 days late before a higher rate can be applied.

"If you pay 60 days late, if you egregiously default, you could lose your deferred interest rate just like you can for any other rate," she adds. "So no more hair-trigger losses of deferred interest payment plans. As long as you pay your bill and make the minimum payment, even if it's a few days late, you won't lose the benefit of the deferred interest promotion."

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

From the actual card act, Title I, Sec 171 B, part 4

[CrystalWoW Community Veteran]

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-627

[AaronE]

Thank you Crystal. I wouldn't want Bob to think I'm some sort of "spin doctor"

[Walrus Valued Contributor]

Crystal wrote: From the actual card act, Title I, Sec 171 B, part 4
----------------------------------------------------------

Its interesting that this section states (paraphrased) that if a payment is 60 days late the creditor may increase the rate with written notice to the debtor, but if the debtor then pays on time for 6 months, the creditor must terminate the increased rate (returning it to a lower rate). It is not stated that the creditor must return the rate back to the original percentage rate charged though, just that the increased rate be terminated. If the creditor stated so in their Agreement, they could change the rate to a percentage higher than originally charged but lower than the "penalty" rate (perhaps as little as a 10th of a percentage point lower).