Insulted by Providian

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by CCMax, Feb 5, 2001.

  1. CCMax

    CCMax Guest

    Hi all,

    As some of you may know, I've been in subprime slime--been trying to climb out of old college-stupidity debt to get a mortgage and was interested in getting an offer from Providian, because it seems they're good on limit increases.

    Well, my husband and I got two offers from them on the same day. They were both Gold card offers. My husband's says "up to $1,000." Mine came preapproved and said my credit didn't need to be checked. His did. My terms: a secured $49 for $300! All of my last few offers: Orchard and 2 Cap Ones have been for totally unsecured cards. Low limits, granted, but totally unsecured. What happened? After all this waiting, this is what I get? I trashed the offer, and figured if my husband decides to apply, I'll get on his. But I figured Providian was my only hope of building credit lines.

    I thought the road was clearing toward Primedom, but I must have taken a wrong turn. How do I turn what I've got into something attractive for the big dogs? I've got a bunch of zero balance paid collections/charge offs, and five open trade lines--all perfect--one car loan and four subprime cards (two partially secured, two unsecured).

    CC
     
  2. jamie

    jamie Well-Known Member

    How old are the charge offs and collections? And, how old are the perfect accounts? If you don't mind me asking?
     
  3. Killer

    Killer Guest

    CCMax,

    I initially felt insulted by Providian when I applied. I had a repo that was less than 2 years old and the creditor was inaccurately reporting the account as a very recent delinquent. Add charge-offs and collections and you get awful credit. Providian offered me 100% secured! Well I only sent them $100 and now 5 months later my limit is $800. I paid them $49 for $500, they gave me $149, and I sent $51 to add to the security savings. Their rep told me that I will receive another incease in 3 to 4 months. People here have posted that Providian is very aggressive with the increases. So what am I saying? Take the offer. Within a year you will have a much bigger limit. I read a post today where someone who only has had the card 5 months has had the APR lowered twice! His APR is now 16%.
     
  4. CCMax

    CCMax Guest

    Most are three to five years old; they'll be falling off in a few years. I've also got that 1st Premier thing hanging over my head, but I expect that to be deleted or corrected. In that case, I will have one negative mark that is only about a year and six months old. My car loan is three years old. One card is a little more than a year, and the other three are just a few months old.
     
  5. jamie

    jamie Well-Known Member

    CC: The charge offs are pretty old, but it depends on how many there are. Your revolving accounts are pretty new. Creditors like to see a 2 year payment history. My husband wasn't able to get anything above a $300 limit with anyone. He never had a credit card before. He had a paid/charge off 5 years old, reported as open. And a duplicate. The acct was paid off in '96. He finally got them to report $0 bal and delete the dup. and by then his $300 card was 2 years old. Since Dec. hes gone from his $300 secured card to $800, 2 gold $2200, $1000 JCPenney and just this week, a Union Plus 5K limit. I just know it was the open balance and the dup. that was holding him up. Not to mention no revolving credit history. This stuff was just corrected in Dec. after 2.5 years of disputing. Keep doing what you are doing. You are on the right track. Soon you'll be getting offers for the good cards.
     
  6. Jon

    Jon Guest

    I just also received the same offer from Providian and I applied for it ($300, $49 down). And just notice the CapitalOne which offers limit of $400 and both say they do not check credit history but CapitalOne does have a lower interest rate.

    I want some feed back on either card. Basicly do they work the same and report to the credit bureaus

    Recently a friend was declared default by Providian and had credit protection and only missed one payment he also was recently divoced.
     

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