I called providian tonight to close my account(s). I have 2. The new one is a Mastercard w/ $1k limit and the older one from 5/00 has a $2680 limit and both have APR's of 23.99% Well, I got the run around tonight. I closed the new account no problem. Retention did give a ----. When I called again to close the older account, the customer service girl gave me new reasons why I hadnot gotten an increase since Nov 2000. I explained to her I paid for that increase and I had only gotten one increase from providian that I didnt pay something for. She said "we have a new script ma'am in which we tell customers.......blah, blah,..she actuallly read to me all the bullcrap she is suppose to say". She said that I didnot use the card much. I have to use the card to get increases. I was like, whatever. I want to close. She then said holdon ma'am. I was then disconnected. I called back and I was told that they were closed by the customer rep people but she would get a supervisor in the "closing account dept" to help me....i held on then got a recording......call back tomorrow. They sent that new pretty gold card to me last week. What a shame to close now. But, Do I need this? Do I need them? They dont make much off of me and I guess they dont care if I stay or leave
I'm sorry to hear you had a hard time with them. To be fair, I do have quite a bit of activity with Providian as my visa with them is the only card I actually carry in my wallet. I also carried a balance on my MasterCard for about 9 months and there has been a balance (sometimes small sometimes very large) on my visa for almost the entire time I've had the card.
Well that would explain it then. I dont use providian with their high rate (23.99%) when I have : Chase at 11.99% Household and GM at 3.99% intro rates for 5 more month 2 Citibank at 15.99% ( I am using my Dividend card primarily now) capital one is high but they are my OLDEST so they stay. I just dont get them. They guy tried to keep my annual fee until i called him on it. I had one year with them for this????
Wow, your Citibank is at 15.99%, huh? I don't have anything that compares to your other rates, but now that I have 15.9% with my Providian visa I'm feeling almost prime. I understand why you don't use yours at that high rate though. I didn't have a choice at the time because Providian was the only card I had for two years. When I got Household, Orchard and Cap One, I didn't use them much over the next year because they had tiny limits and terms that were just about the same as Providian. Before I found this board I never knew how much weight card issuers placed on actually using the cards regularly. It really makes me wonder where I'd be if I had found this resource sooner. Now I try to use all of my cards for something at least once a month.
Roni, I've noticed that if you call at the right time and the retention dept. person is a male...you tend to get what you want....i've noticed the women give me a hard time. My Visa Plat.....has 15,000 at 9.9 fixed down from 13.9. They sent me a matercard "Premium Card (haha)" in Dec. started at $1,000...now 5 months later $3,000 at 15.9%. I've had good luck with the men at the Dallas, TX Retention office with Providian...Pleasanton, Ca no such luck. Anyway, have a good evening. Sean
I don't know the physical location of the person I spoke to (well, she did say "Have a good afternoon" at about 4:15pm Pacific time.) but it was definitely a woman.
