Everything I ever said good about Providian is now taken back. I received a notice in my last statment from them that my APR will be the Prime Rate + 25% after 3 years of having never been late. The reason: A review of my EX report revealed serious deliquency and new accounts were opened. My report is 10 times cleaner than it was when I first got the card 3 years ago. I guess the main reason my APR was jacked was to punish me for using Providian for the only good thing they are good for apparently - establishing a good payment record to get new accounts. MY APR will never be lower than 29.98&. I forgot to mention that. Then I paid off my entire balance, and when I got the next statement I had finance charges on the 0 balance. The reason: I do not have a grace period even though my statment clearly states I do. My question is: should I just sock drawer this card, and use it once in a while for a $5.00 purchase? Its my highest limit, and also my oldest active tradeline so I am sure my score would tank if I cancelled it. So anything any of you find where I am hyping providian, please disregard.
We've kept ours for the same reason, age of account. It would have felt great to dump them a couple of years ago when they jacked our rate, but we just paid it off and have let it sit since. (BTW, the month after we paid it they sent a letter saying we were jacked "in error." Yeah, right.) We charge $2 once a year then pay $5 so we have a credit balance that they eventually have to refund. In a case like this, the best revenge is using them to YOUR benefit. DemPooches
I was thinking more along the lines of charging my home long distance bill every month to mine. I have a cell with unlimited usage so usually my bill is no more than 25¢ or so. Make them pay 39¢ to send me a 25¢ bill every month. What do you think about that?
