I received a free flight after barely using my HSBC card.

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Back in 2007 I received a phone call from HSBC one night. Since I was currently out of work because of a terminal illness. I was trying very hard to pay of some of my debts. Before becoming ill I had a great job and was able to use credit cards. I only had one at the time it was Capital One. When I first signed up for this card I purchased the insurance protection just in case I ever became ill that they would make payments for me. Well little to say they only paid $19.00 per month toward there card. I was upset because if you can't make full payments on a card the interest falls into the highest 24% bracket. Well we all know you can never pay this off. Since I really wanted this credit card paid off but had no way to pay it at the time. I just allowed the card company to keep paying this $19.00 per month. Well back to the phone call that I received from HSBC. I received a call from a representative that offered me a way out. He told me that if I decided to go with HSBC that they could do a balance transfer to Capital One and pay them off. Also he told me that I would have 0% interest for 12 months. I told the representative that I may do this but I needed to also get new tires for my truck and wanted to have left over credit on the card to buy them. I asked him what was the limit he could offer me? He said he could get me a $5000. 00 limit. Since I needed to pay $1500. 00 to Capital One this would leave me $3500. 00 left over so I could buy tires and still have some credit for other things. Also I would have 12 full months to pay them back with no interest. I asked the representative over and over again if he was sure that the limit would be $5000. 00. He told me not to worry and he was absolutely positive that I would have this limit on the new card. I explained to him that I was skeptical because I have dealt with many other card companies in the past and sometimes they do not keep there end of the bargain. I advised him that I was a bill collector and know how it works. He told me to hold one and he would make sure that I was approved before I agree. He then placed me on a brief hold and when he came back he again said I was approved. I told him that if everything did not go as he said that I would be very upset. When the representative first called he said he was from Discover. I went ahead and told him to go ahead and do the balance transfer to Capital One and gave him all there information. He advised me that I would have my new card in 5-7 business days. One week later I received a letter and the card in the mail. I will never forget how mad I was when I opened the letter up. The letter stated that I only had a credit limit of $2000. 00. Also the card was not a true Discover card it was from the Discover Network. So if a balance transfer for $1500. 00 was to go to Capital One this would only leave $500,00 left. This was not even enough to buy new tires for my truck. I was so mad I called them up and got a supervisor on the line and told him how his representative lied to me and tricked me into taking out a card that he promised would have a $5000. 00 limit on it. I explained to him the reason and what I needed it for. Well the supervisor told me that there was nothing he could do. H advised me that the balance transfer to Capital One had been made and that at least I did not have to worry about that card anymore. I told him that I really did not care because I did appreciate being lied to and felt that it was deceitful entrapment in order to get me to go with them, regardless of them paying off the other card. I advised him that this kind of sales marketing was against the law and that he should listen to the call that was made to me by his representative promising me of a $ 5000. 00 credit limit. Well he still blew me off and I hung up on him. I then began to think of a way to fix these jerks and thought to myself two can play this game. Since I just went out of work the year before I still had an ace in the whole. I had one more income tax return. I went and got my return done and when I received it. I decided to pay the whole $1500. 00 back to the HSBC bank before my 12 month 0% time frame. This way I could kill two birds with one stone. Also they could not charge me a dime in interest. This is exactly what I did. I first called them to get an exact payoff good through the entire month and then sent them a check in the amount of $1529. 00 to make sure it was $1.00 over. They way they would have to send me back a check for $1.00. Then after I received proof that they where paid off. I called them again and advised them I was cutting up there card as we speak. After that I wrote there corporate office a letter explaining every thing that took place. I advised them that if I wanted to be a real B, that I could file a complaint with the BBB and let them know about the entrapment. I then faxed the letter to them and waited for them to respond. They wrote me back letter saying that the next time I wanted to pay off another card company that I should go to a bank and apply for a loan. I laughed my butt off. I thought to myself how does it feel HSBC for someone to use you? To this day I have no credit cards. I believe in cash on the barrel. I would rather save for something than give my money to rip off card companies. I hope this review helps other not to get roped into maybe many years of grief. www.hsbc.com