I have a Aria/providian/getsmart card for three years now. limit started at $1000, still there, they refuse to increase. They told me that They cannot increase the limit manually, and only when the computer shows an increase possible can they increase my limit. The card has been in my sock drawer for a year now,.. Just used it this month (got automatically billed on it for a domain name I registered last year.) Will that help or hurt my chance for an increase? will PFB help? Will chewing GEORGE's ear off help?? Nestea -- No tagline will ever show up after my posts, never!
You need to use it 4 months IN A ROW in order to get any type of increase. Do you have AOL or anything that needs to be billed monthly, use it for that then PAY IT OFF ASAP!
I had the same card. Charged $2700+ in auto. charges to keep it active and pd. it off monthly( it was an old tradeline ). Providian closed my acct. for no apparent reason ( no derogs, no late pays, overlimit, etc., prime scores ). It went to Card Services and my rate went to 29.99. Now, that is offensive. It was pd. and is now gone forever. Moral is: Sleep with one eye open when dealing with Providian. Best of luck to you.
I have one too. But it did not get sold to card services/emerge or whatever it is called. But, I called to cancel it with a ZERO balance for the last 5 months. Guess what? APR dropped to 8.9 (6% cut)and CL increased to 10K (1000 dollar inc) in order to keep me as customer. Well, I tried to resist, but couldn't. What's a guy to do?.
hmm. were you transferred to a different department? or was it the reguilar rep? also, did they pull your CR, hard or soft? thanks
I don't have a GETSMART card but I've had a providian secured card for over 2 years now with no CL increases since the first year and no upgrade from secured to unsecured. I don't recall ever being late or going over the limit. I've called several times and was given the same excuse about the manual review. I did PFB and received a call right away. I faxed over a copy of my credit report that had 2 paid collections and <10% utilization on 2 out of 8 cards. My DSL is charged monthly to Providian and I pay it off as soon as it shows up. I haven't carried a balance in 4-5 months. After 2 weeks of phone conversations with Linda C. from Providian's head office I was told the same thing the CSRs tell me: I'm sorry but we can't give you a credit line increase at this time nor can we unsecure your card. You have to wait for an automatic review. blah blah blah I was so ticked. I've almost completely given up. She told me I can write a letter to the CEO if I wasn't happy with the results. The thing is that I wrote the CEO on PFB the first time around! For you I'd say try PFB. Linda seemed sincere enough so maybe you'll get better results.
I called CS at 800-356-0011 and told them I wanted to close the account, she asked me why, I said I am replacing it with a rewards card. She said OK I can transfer you to another operator who will be glad to help you, please hold. About 5 minutes later, another operator came on the phone and again asked me why. Again, I repeated what I told the CS Rep. At this point, she told me that I have managed my account in excellent manner yada yada yada, shame to lose your business, and offered lower APR by 2%. I said I appreciate it, and I am grateful for your bank helping me when I was down, but that was 4 years ago and while I am appreciative, it is time to move on, thanks. Now she recanted at how providian would hate to lose me and wished that I used the card more, I said well thank you, that is very kind of you, thank you, but I still would like to close the account please. Finally, she said, sir I'll tell you what, here is what I can do....Inc CL by 1000 to 10K and lower APR to 8.9, that is the best I can do and hope you consider this a goodwill counter-offer. What could I say?. So, I said Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, OK I'll take it, thank so much for your cooperation and helpfullness.
I called, and said " i would like to close my account" they said "OK, account is closed". whoaaa? I said "you are supposed to ask me "why" i am closing it"... she said "well since you have a platinum, we cant offer you any upgrades, so we closed it. So.. Closed provdian... Platinum... $1000 still the limit... after 3 years.... they said that I call call tomorrow to re-open, no credit check or anything. They just need the syatem to report "closed", takes 24 hours, then they can "re-open". will this hurt my chances for a Limit increase?? Nestea The No Signature.. Signifies...Silence
What an A-hole!! I can't believe they did that to you. Same thing could happen to me next time. Well, you got me thinking that I should close my account on principle alone.
You are right on Mecro! I got a Providian card 2.5 years ago. I stayed with them when it turned Aria, then GetSmart, and now Card Services. My credit limit was increased to $3k until it became a Getsmart card. Since then my interest rate went up to 29.9% and my customer service went down to 0% satisfaction. I tried a PFB approach to the interest rate and limit increase, but the George Factor kicked in. Didn't matter that I never went over 75% utilization, paid in huge chunks, never late, and used the card every single month for over 2 years. I got a GM card in Sept and did a BT. Keeping the card in the sock drawer for utilization and aging purposes. Basically, they suck.
I have re-opened the account. the rep told me, after putting me on hold for almost 20 minutes, that really he is not supposed to re-open the account, because its a platinum card (Ithought it was gold, but it seem sthey upgraded me at one point), and "if you have ever, during the life of a platinum account, been late, we cannpt reopen the account... but since you didn't meant to close it, I will bend the rules and re-open it for you." still no luck on the limit increase though. I told them "that is rediculous, you are penalizing people who have platinum accounts more then gold cards by being stricter with them". I made sure they did not pull a CR. The Rep also told me that I do not qualify for an increase, and that they review acct's every six months to see if an increase qualifies. my next review is in march. So till march.......
