A reader sent me a message regarding HSBC not reporting their credit card information to TransUnion, originally I thought this was some sort of mistake but the message from HSBC clearly stated that they do not report information to TransUnion and only report to Equifax, Experian & Innovis. After some additional research I found that HSBC stopped reporting data to TransUnion in August, 2016.
The implications for this are fairly minor, most people don’t have a HSBC credit card and it not reporting to TransUnion isn’t a huge deal anyway but I did think it was interesting. I have no idea why HSBC made this decision, do any readers have any insight about why this might be the case?
Hat tip to reader Andrew D
TU was part of the HSBC laundering scheme and the US DOJ banned them from having any formal business agreements.
Probably because they couldn’t negotiate an agreement with Transunion that both parties were happy with.
There as some issue with the credit score of accounts TransUnion provided to HSBC earlier due to which HSBC broke all ties with TransUnion and stopped reporting/pulling data from them
Not directly related, but HSBC must have the most bizarre log-in process imaginable. All my accounts have been shut down by them but if I remember correctly, there’s a secret word and a password, and you only type certain characters of the secret word to log in. It’s just unnecessary and annoying. (makes 1Password unusable too)
That used to be the case previously, but not anymore. They’ve come up to speed in login process as well as transactions.
I did notice that HSBC recently implemented an extra level of login security. They claim it’s to prevent fraud, hacking, etc. Maybe the fraud-hacking conduit had something to do with TransUnion.
My HSBC credit card doesn’t show up on the Transunion credit report in Credit Karma. The credit score is the same as Equifax so it doesn’t seem to make a difference.
I had an HSBC card from late 2017 to mid 2018 when I closed it and can confirm they only reported it to Ex & EQ but not TU. Horrible bank to do biz with, and their website a confusing mess, 1 link to 3rd party site to set up external bank account and pay the card, another link to a 3rd party site to view & redeem rewards. Small starting limits and a hard pull on EQ to tell you no CLI for you.
Maybe this just saves them some money; possibly Equifax & Experian gave them a better deal than Transunion.
+1. Saves money. My CU auto loan only reports to EQ.
Yeah, I had a gym membership that reported as a line of credit but only reported to one credit bureau, I think Equifax. Typically big companies have agreements with all three of the “big 3” credit bureaus, but it’s not uncommon at all for small businesses to only have agreements with 1-2.
I can’t imagine it saves them money. IIRC, there’s no (direct) cost to furnish data to CRAs. Banks only pay when they request data.
That is correct. Must be some technicality that TU and HSBC couldn’t agree on..
Now if Banks would always pull TU this could be beneficial
Seriously. my TU has like 30% less HP.
My Provident CU credit card does not report to any credit report agencies.
Provident CU in the SF Bay Area? Mine does to all three CRA.
I used to work there, assuming bay area, it definitely should be reported
There are some institutions that do not report if you don’t use your card or at least let your statement cut with a balance every once in a while.
From a European perspective with GDPR laws and regulations I could imagine it gives them more headaches to “share” sensitive data. However, I don’t know anything other than the broad impact GDPR had on the company I work for even though HQ is in the U.S.
Any company with European customers needs to comply with the European privacy regulations, at least for these European customers. Some companies decide to just implement the same policies for all customers.
That would make sense if HSBC stopped reporting to any credit bureau. In addition, HSBC’s bank in the US is a separate company from the bank that does business in the EU and as far as I can tell, HSBC America does not offer services in EU countries.
HSBC doesn’t report European customers to American credit reporting agencies, period. That’s not how it works.
Furthermore, GDPR wouldn’t really apply in this situation because HSBC/Transunion would make the argument that there is a legitimate business use for reporting/sharing this data. If you could control *everything* companies knew about you you could just take out a loan and they demand they “forget” you took out the loan, rinse, repeat.