as shown by internal Providian documents. The customer strategies are in the SF Chronicle today. Go to http://www.sfgate.com/ to review the story - it is frigging FASCINATING on how the EX- Providian executives INTENTIONALLY SCREWED THE CUSTOMER. IT IS worse that we suspected on this board. It is astonishing! Here are 3 key paragraphs - the article is quite long - but again fascinating: These are EXECUTIVE Marketing documents: 1 - "Why shove 'no grace period' in their eye? Why not use one of the numerous ideas for a 'limited' grace period that have been put forward. 'Limited meaning that the customer responds to (it) as if there were a grace period, but in reality almost no one gets the benefit of it." 2 - "Kahr (top top exec at Providian) objected to straightforward explanations of the cost of the credit. He recommended promtoing "no-annual-fee" cards that required customers to pay for CREDIT PROTECTION, an add-on service of dubious value that in one case cost $96 per year." 3 - "One of Kahr's favorite strategies was to trap customers with penalty fees for late payments or going over limits. 'We should authorize to 110% of credit line, we should charge an overlimit fee proportional to line, we should allow overline balance transfers, we should not add overlimit amount to minimum payments, and we should trigger higher interest rates on a single instance of 1$ overlimit.' " Granted, these were the tactics used by San Francisco FED COURT against Providian. BUT - what in the HELL is going on when they are sending out 29.99% notices??? Have practices really changed? This is disgusting - I am glad after reading this that I got through with them without ever paying for anything extra! whoa whoa aarrfff - dogman
Amen. When I got their notice they were raising my APR to 29.99%, I paid their card off prior to the APR increase and closed their butts.
Hey Dogman, I had Providian for all of about 4 months. I got sick and tired of them trying to sell me their unusable and worthless side programs. I will NEVER do business with them or anyone else that works like they do.
It's really too bad that Providian is treating customers like this nowadays. I was loyal to them before since they gave me my first card when others didn't, but I cancelled after I got some prime cards. Didn't they sell some accounts to Chase ?
Hi LKH - I remember when they "PUT ON MY ACCOUNT 2X" credit protection. I also had it removed twice with threats about going to the SF DAs office. They cleared it both times. Once they sent me an increase for $120. THEN I read further and saw they added CREDIT PROTECTION (third time) for a fee of $119.00 !!!! I got a $1 increase net if I did the deal! Back to the DA threat, and off it came! I ended up with a perfect pymt history from Providian. But I see lots of folks getting slammed with 29.99% threat - get serious - its 30% when others charge 0-15%! I think a big new moneymaker for Providian is their "online payment charge" of $9.95 per online payment. I know they do not charge that yet, but I saw it in the disclosure statement that threatened me with an upcoming increase to 24%, causing me to dump them forever. They did not write that clause in that Disclosure for their health! I also remember the only complaint anyone ever had about CAP ONE was not a high enough limit. Nobody ever got screwed by fees. CAP ONE stock is up 30%. aarrff - dogman
I would get rid of Providian except that it and Cap 1 are my oldest tradelines post BK in '97. I received notice that late fees are going up but so far no increase in apr. from 19.8%.
I know of a person that had a secured card with them and they were a few payments behind, and he started getting harassing phone calls from them about the account. He told them to apply the secured amount to the account. They told him that was another department and to just pay the bill. I hope that they go down. Charlie
What does perfect account history at Providian =29% interest. I have had my Providian account for 2 years now at 16.9% a.p.r no problems till I called customer service last week and inquired if my account was going to 29% a.p.r. The rep told me that it was indeed going to 29% and that they sent me a letter. I told them they did not send me any notice. I ask him why are they doing it to the good customers? His response was that they are doing it to all their credit portfolio. I personally don't know what the hell is going on at Providian but I will tell you guys that their will be NO PROVIDIAN if they continue to screw with the customers. I have never had problems with them and my account is in excellent standing. What am I suppose to do with a 29% credit card? The only thing I can think of is to scrape bird droppings off my car with it. I will close the account and I am lucky I don't owe them any money. I feel sorry for the customers that owe Providian thousands of dollars at 29% This is not acceptable. Word of mouth is very strong and I promise myself that I will tell everyone I know to stay away from Providian and hope they shut down. I do know that the majority of the executives of Providian come from Fleet which is notorious for screwing people with higher interest rates.
George, consider yourself lucky that they did not give you a card. Their card would make you sick at the 29.9% interest rate.
So jr, you're saying you did not get notified of an increase but they are still increasing your APR? Interesting. I have not received any notice either and I'll wait and see if I do. If I don't and then it goes up, Providian and I will be going to do battle. I'm to be notified first. I've been paying close attention to the inserts coming in the statements but from my understanding, each customer actually got a letter. Uh huh, well, we'll see. SweetnSas formerly known as Shantel
That is correct, I have watched Providian like a hawk since I had the account and they never sent me any notice of any a.p.r. increase. Even if Providian survives who would ever trust them?????? They give you a low a.p.r and then they screw you with 29% for being a good customer.
YES George, I have never been late or over the limit. Perfect history with Providian and my other creditors. They are screwing everyone.
No George, I would not carry a Providian card anymore. If Providian is lucky I will use the card to scrape bird droppings off my car windshield.
yep... that's a good idea indeed. I had a credit balance of 10 and I've been charging 1.07 per month or so to just keep it active... I got it down to about 3.00 and they just voluntarily sent me a check.. I was going to keep it going another couple of months. I guess that card won't get any activity now because I just don't want to bother anymore with them...
