My problem is this: I had an acct with Prov. they closed the acct and stopped charging me late fees and OTL fees. I disputed and they have reopened the acct and started this all over again. Is this right, can they do this? How do I stop the fees from accumulating from here?
Exactly what happened with Providian? Normally if you're so far behind that they have to close the account they don't stop charging any fees, they just prevent you from using the card again when (if) you ever get caught up. If you kept ignoring their calls and it was a reasonably low amount they might have given up on contacting you for the time being, so you would have stopped getting communication from them. This doesn't mean that the debt no longer exists or that they're no longer charging any fees. When you disputed the account the Credit Bureau contacted Providian to see if the information was correct. At that point Providian realized that you were still out there and trying to remove their negative information from your credit report. This probably annoyed them enough to get back in contact with you. Like I said, most likely the fees have been accumulating since they closed the account, but they may not hvae been actively trying to contact you until you disputed the account. People on this board call that 'waking the beast'. Brett
Ok, then thats probably what happened. I stopped receiving anything from them for months and so I just figured that the fees stopped. How do I stop the fees now?
Well... the simple answer is to start paying them. If you start making monthly payments the late fees will stop and if you get the balance down below the original credit limit then the over limit fees will stop. If your're so far over the credit limit at this point and you're genuinely interested in paying what you owe, then you may be able to contact Providian and explain that you got behind, but you'd like to take care of the debt and see if you can work out a payment schedule with them. Tell them that you want to take care of this, but the overlimit and late fees are making it impossible. They may be willing to work with you and reduce or eliminate the fees. Like I said, though, only do this if you're genuinely intending to pay this back, and you have money available to pay this, because if you do call them and make an arrangement, then you stop making payments again it will only annoy them further and make them less likely to make further arrangements in the future. HTH, Brett
