HSBC GM Mastercard Nevada Brian Hughes Executive Vice President Lowered Credit Amount without authorization Salinas, California

On March 13, 2011, I received a letter in the mail. Enclosed was a HSBC Mastercard with a credit limit of $1200.00. I had applied for this card on the Internet two weeks prior receiving it. I had to activate the card by calling into the card center and it was confirmed that I had been approved for $1200.00 credit limit.

On March 14, 2011, I preceeded to take my son back to college and felt I could use the card for traveling since it was for $1200.00: $300.00 for cash advance.

I went to an ATM machine to get $100.00. I felt the PIN was the last four digits of the card. I called the card center and they told me they would send the PIN in 14 days after I could not get the money from the ATM!

I went out of town to take my son back to college this same day and we were in the process of purchasing a book at a Barnes and Noble book store and I also purchased other items while traveling and the worker in the store told me the card was declined. I had never heard of a card company stopping you from using a card they had approved or changing the limit without seeing if the consumer pays or not.

My son called the card center and a message stated that my limit was now $300.00 instead of $1200.00. My son was with me when I activated the card, so he was as confused as I was.

I didn't want to call myself, so I would not curse them out for putting me in such a tense and bewildered situation. I called a week later on March 21, 2011 and wanted to know for what reason the limit was lowered. I agreed to $1200.00 and if they had just offered me three hundred dollar limit, I would have sought out another bank to deal with because that is NOT what I wanted. They did not send me a letter or gave me a phone call as to this change being made, nor have they sent the PIN number for cash withdrawl.

I feel you just can't GIVE people what YOU want them to have without their approval. I was shocked to see so many rebuttals to this ripoff. I will be contacting the Better Business Bureau to alert other consumers to this crazy company and I will be contacting the media so the consumer will know about this company and use a credible card company.