Providian acct. closed

On the five year anniversary of this account, I called retention after checking the website to find that I was charged a $49.00 annual fee. Last year, a rep. told me that my annual fee was waived permanently.

I told retention that I only pay an annual fee on one other card and only because it offers reward miles. She said the payment record has been excellent but the account was not profitable. She is right about that. I pay off the balance every month because Providian has steadfastly refused to lower the APR from 19.8 and I only carry balances on cards with rates half that much.

Of interest to others, she said that Providian will be offering platinum upgrades to some gold cardholders with better terms and no annual fee starting next month. She noted that I would probably qualify for the upgrade. Still she wouldn't waive the fee. I closed the account. This leaves me with two Orchard accounts and 5 prime accounts. So far, Orchard has waived fees.

 

I had to call Orchard retention to get it done this last time. Before that, the customer service reps. cheerfully waived the fee for three years in a row. Orchard has changed alot in the last year since Household Bank took over. The reps. seem to have less discretion and it is obvious that they answer questions from scripts. They act like robots. Another sign of change is that they now charge for credit line increases if you ask for them. It's too bad because this used to be a much better bank.