kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
Leave the First Comment

As mentioned earlier, we recently canceled our HSBC card after yet another problem.

Yesterday, we received a letter in the mail discussing these problems.  One passage in particular jumped out at me.  Note: the errors in grammar, usage, and punctuation are those of the original writer.

“… With regard to the fraud alert placed on your account, our records indicate your account had a temporary block placed on April 18, 2009 due to the velocity of transactions made in one day, the time between transactions and the potential for fraud with one of these transactions.  You may have frequented these merchants before, however; systemically the account is reviewed for the above situations.  Please note, HSBC does not receive the name of merchants identified in these transactions …”

If HSBC claims to not receive the names of merchants identified in these transactions, then how exactly did they have this information at their fingertips (the transactions that were successfully processed as well as those that had been declined) when my wife called on her cell phone on the way home from the mall – a short time after the last attempted use of the card?

It would seem that the name and location of merchants would fairly useful when analyzing purchase patterns for potential fraud.  If my card is used in China one moment and Australia the next, I would hope that this would be flagged as suspicious activity.  If my card is used at the same merchants I have frequented for several years, I would hope that this is not flagged as suspicious activity.

Unless I receive further communications from HSBC, I consider this issue to be closed.  It was an interesting ride – equal parts bizarre, annoying, and unpleasant – but it’s over.

Kosmo is the founder of The Soap Boxers and writes on a variety of topics, including the Fiction Friday original short stories. You can purchase some of Kosmo's work at the company store. Like Kosmo's writing? You can leave a tip.

Like this site? Subscribe via RSS, Subscribe via Email, or Follow us on Twitter.

You might also like these other articles from The Soap Boxers (auto generated)

• The "What Could Have Been" Team There is nothing quite as sad in sports as unfulfilled potential.  This team consists of players who fell short of...
• The $29 fee that cost Bank of America so much more … I once had a credit card through MBNA. I loved this card. It was an alumni card that proudly displayed...
• How to Balance a Checkbook Over the years, I have come to the realization that a lot of people are not familiar with the process...

Related articles from other sites (auto generated, not affiliated with The Soap Boxers)

• The Rise of Debit Cards Can this be the U.S.? Visa is reporting that in 2008, American consumers spent more using debit cards than they...
• HSBC Advance Review: Our Review of HSBC Advance’s Online Savings Account HSBC Advance, the rebranded version of HSBC Direct, offers an online savings account to customers in the United States that’s...
• Rewards Credit Cards Are A Reverse Transfer Of Wealth Or at least so says the Boston Fed (by way of Consumerist). Here’s the abstract from a recent Fed paper:...

Comments

Leave a Reply

Set up a customized icon to appear next to your comments!

Is your comment not appearing? Don't worry - I'm not censoring you. Your comment just got caught in my spam filter. It will be viewable shortly (almost always within 24 hours, and much more quickly 90% of the time).

Name

Email Address

Website

Comments

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail

---

Writers for The Soap Boxers are freelance writers who work as independent contractors. Opinions expressed by the writers may not necessarily reflect the opinion of management.

Copyright for all content belongs to the writer identified in the byline. Copyright for any content not associated with a particular writer belongs to Kosmo. Copyright for comments belongs to the writer of the comment.

Content from The Soap Boxers cannot be reused in any manner other than what is allowed under the fair use doctrine of US copyright law or the applicable copyright laws of your country.

© 2008-2010. All rights reserved.

Please email Kosmo at Kosmo@ObservingCasually.com with any questions you may have.

The Soap Boxers is a division of Hyrax Publications

The Soap Boxers is hosted by Dreamhost. Sign up by clicking on the ad below and get your first year's service for just $36 - $3 per month!