Warning to HSBC Customers

The other day I received a replacement Mastercard debit card from HSBC, despite the fact that my current one doesn't expire until 2011, with no accompanying explanation for it being sent. I called the customer service (not!) number and, after being kept on hold by the Mumbai call center for fully 15 minutes, eventually learned that my old card was among a batch that had been compromised by hackers breaking into the computer system of Heartshare Payment Systems, a processor of credit card payments.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/credit/2009-01-20-heartland-credit-card-security-breach_N.htm

The hack took place at the end of January so for over a month HSBC knew a number of their cards were compromised and yet didn't send out any notification that this was the case, either via a separate letter or even with the replacement card. Here's the kicker, though. I was informed that if I had merely activated the new card at via the telephone number stuck to it, rather than calling to see what the story was, my old card wouldn't have been canceled until another 4 weeks after activation of the new card, thus giving the hackers a bonus month of theft. If anybody's in the same boat as me I would strongly suggest going through the trauma of calling the customer service number to sort it out rather than just activating the new card.

The way the American consumer has been subjected to the stupidity of bank practices over recent years, we must have had blinkers on not to see the potential of that idiocy having an impact on much more than personal banking.