HSBC Sucks is a blog designed to serve as a sounding board for individuals against HSBC. The founder is Chris Horton (me) who started the blog after being trapped in a mortgage with HSBC at a high interest rate of over 8% and after a refusal from HSBC to refinance even after proven on-time payment history.
After unemployment financially crippled me, I found employment and got on a stringent payment plan and fully got back on track. I cleaned up my credit, stayed on time with the mortgage payment for over a year with no modifications, along with all of my other bills. At that point, I felt that I could probably call HSBC and refinance down to a lower interest rate so that I could have a little more breathing room and was essentially told by HSBC that they weren’t going to refinance anymore.
To make matters worse, I called back for my payoff information only to find that my $160,000 mortgage was now $164,000. So after years of paying $1500 a month, I was no closer to owning that home than when I began. All traditional mortgage was then blown out of the water because all of them require a minimum of 5% equity in the home. I was underwater. Even after being diligent and responsible, HSBC refused to budge. They were making thousands of dollars off of me and they knew they had me trapped.
And it gets worse. My home value 4 years ago was $174,000. My home value now is around $110,000 and Zillow even has me at $89,000. So now I’m not only underwater, but upside-down. If I’m going to be at this house for a long time, I need to make more of an impact on the loan, but HSBC doesn’t want that. They’ve made over $17,700 off of me just in the past year. On time payments. And the mortgage balance went nowhere. Multiply that by the 3 years I’ve been with them and you’re looking at over $50,000 they’ve robbed from my family. The balance of my mortgage is $4000 higher than when I started. Here HSBC. Take my $50,000.
And that’s why we’re here. I know I’m not alone. There are thousands of you out there experiencing the same brick walls and frustration. With the new mortgage proposal recently announced from President Obama, we may have an option through HARP, but if we can find a way to take our business away from HSBC and get our homes back, it will all be worth it.
Are you going through the same type of fiasco and would like to share your journey also? Let me know and I’ll add you as a writer so that you can tell us your experiences. This is YOUR forum.
HSBC Sucks 