October 02, 2009
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"Win / Win" or "No Deal", Pt.2
Cases in point: "My Friend vs. HSBC".Recently, a friend of mine wanted to open a new credit card account and to transfer an existing balance to a lower-interest account. Knowing I had spent the last two years working in and researching dealings in the credit card industry, she asked for my help. Since the frequent mail offers had stopped months ago (down 82% from last year), I searched on-line. I've always had good dealings with Discover and been treated well and fairly, so I selected what like the best. Wanting to protect my friend, I chose to get the phone number so I could ask questions and clear out any land mines rather than applying on-line. I was very pleased with the telephone negotiations and commended the posted credit card offerings on-line. But, I wanted to ask if there might be even something better that was not advertised (there almost always is).
The unadvertised credit card offer the rep came up with was much better then I had imagined. Zero interest--both purchases and transfers for the first 6 months; $6,000 credit limit; only a 3% Balance Transfer Fee (credit unions are even better but, this is still good) and no hidden fees. To my utter shock however, when the credit card finally arrived, the terms were straight out of Dante's "Inferno". The interest rate for purchases and transfers was 27% (same as Default) and, get this: the credit limit was only $500! What really caught my eye, however, was the issuing bank -- HSBC. What are they doing by defaming the good name of Discover? The slam of slams was that, even after the insult of all the wasted time (and "hard hit" on the credit report) for something totally worthless, they demanded a $10 annual fee already accruing interest!
I shouldn't have to explain what I did next.