Hello,

At least once in our lives we motorcycling enthusiast decide to buy and finance a new ride. Since the cost of the average motorcycle has sky-rocketed to somewhere near $10,000 for a metric or American ride and maybe twice that for anything Italian we are not paying cash anymore. Gone are the days of my $500.00 rat bikes. When I bought the mule I was offered a promotional finance plan from my dealer for Suzuki Financing. Competitive rates, decent terms, all seemed okay. However, when I got my first statement it turned out that my bike loan was owned the HSBC! If you are not familiar, HSBC is widely considered to the largest predatory lender in the US of A. I was now treading barefoot in a sea of broken glass and mystery fees. Since I have had the account I have been threatened, lied to, shuffled, and god only knows what else they want to do to me. Why would Suzuki or The Cycle Center of Denton, TX do this to me? As it turns out I am dealing with HSBS’s bottom feeder CSRs. There are no pleasantries when you call and they will only give you there name if you badger them for it. It is easier to lie to a customer if they cannot trace it back to you. In the last two years I have had no less than three payments “lost” until the first business day after a due date. Seems a little fishy to me??? Cha Ching! $35.00 a pop per instance. Try calling to get them waived. I have had one late fee and once $15.00 was rolled off. As it turns out their goal is to get me to default so I will pay the default rate of about 24%. Why not just put it on the gold card??? So, if you are going to take the plunge opt for the bank financing. Sure you may have a slightly higher payment but in the long run it will save you money and aggravation. And in the end you won’t have to break out the K-Y every time you have to deal with HSBC.