Last month, I called the no. for the retention dept. that I found on this site, and was able to talk to a very nice young man that lowered the percentage rate on both my VISA and MC and gave me a nice $1500 credit limit increase on my VISA. He couldn't give me an increase on my MC because it was too new, and told me to call back in March for the 120 day increase and to ask for a further reduction in the APR. Well, I got a snippy young woman today who simply refused to "negotiate the terms of my card" and said any increases in credit limit would be done automatically(read "for a fee"). Has anyone else run into this recently with Providian? The only thing I can think that may have happened was that I was approved for a NextCard last night, and transferred the balance I had on that Providian card, but I can't believe that NextCard would have already done that, would they? I'm sure it takes days instead of hours for a transfer. I don't want to close the Providian account, because I want to keep my debt ratio down.
Try calling back! I always get 3 conformations. Today I called the bank and asked about auto-pay to a checking account. The first two said it had to be a joint account if their were two people involved, the third lady said they simply have to sign the form, so of course I called back and the forth lady said the same as the third. kev
No way, you just got a person in a bad mood. Yesterday I called Aria and got transferred to Prov retention in Utah. Was told by a very snippy lady that I was talking to Providian and why was I trying to get them to access my Aria acct... well, duh. It was an internal transfer... I didn't access a blasted thing. I kept trying to explain to her...yaddayaddayadda. Fell on deaf ears. So I called Aria back and explained..they apologized, then they sent me to the correct retention center (Tx)... and I got my card rates to 19.8... I'll go for the 16.9 when I get back from vacation. Anyway, the point is, I think you got the same b*%ch that I got yesterday. By the way, in all my calls, I've only gotten 1 (yes, one)nasty person. and it was yesterday. Relax, and call again. I have noticed a trend: when I get the San Antonio, Tx office I get nicer service. Just a thought. Now I ask for the San Antonio office
Re: Providian As far as I can tell, a balance transfer makes a bank more willing to deal. They figure you have other options. That was definitely the case with my Citibank account. They started giving me a lot more deals once I transferred most of my balance to Chase. A nice $800 balance transfer to Citibank didn't seem to retard my progress with Providian, either.
Re: No way, you just got a LOL, I used to live in Texas...guess I'll dust off my drawl and ask for San Antonio ;-)
Hey Richguy How do they know it's a balance transfer? I thought the company just sent a check to another company... they don't do it electronically, do they?
Re: Hey Richguy Id like to know this too. I send checks and pay electronically to citi, do you think they actually spend the time to look at the checks? you just have to call up and threaten to "transfer out" your balances, and a nice account rep at citi will help you out as much as his computer will let him!
Balance Transfers Marie and Sam, It could be that they respect you more after a balance transfer, or it could simply be that any large payment does the trick. My balance transfers have been much larger than my monthly payments at the same banks. When I have talked with Chase about my two balance transfers, they have specifically mentioned mailing checks. Somehow I have the idea that Citibank is able to do it electronically. Unlike Chase, they have never asked me for an address to which to send a balance transfer. It seems to be the same with Juniper online, and for that matter on my unsuccessful Discover applications. All they ever wanted was credit card numbers, not addresses or even bank names. Maybe they have their own databases that tell them where to mail the checks?
Re: Balance Transfers They do. I think the coding on the account number tells them which bank, kind of like a routing and transit number does on a check. Johnny
Re: Balance Transfers Thanks to all who gave me advice. As I wrote earlier: "Well, I got a snippy young woman today who simply refused to "negotiate the terms of my card" and said any increases in credit limit would be done automatically(read "for a fee")." As some of you suggested, I called back today, and spoke to a nice young man who lowered my interest rate on my MC, but said he couldn't raise my credit limit above the automatic $200 that was done today,because the offers had just been mailed today. He was very willing to help, but said the "computer wouldn't let him" override the written offer, and since I had just gotten a $1500 line increase and a waiver of my membership fee in February, he couldn't drop my interest rate on the VISA....don't know if that is true, but at least he was courteous. So, I got my MC interest down to 16.9.
