Providian finally came through

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by DaveLV, Jul 14, 2001.

  1. DaveLV

    DaveLV Well-Known Member

    Last month I wrote to Providian through planetfeedback. The result of my letter was that they promised me a $1,000 limit increase which never materialized. Checking my account online this morning shows they finally did it. Somewhere in the middle of all this I also got a $100 increase.

    Also -- in May I called and asked about getting a grace period on my classic Mastercard with Providian. The retention people not only said they'd give me a grace period, they gave me a $1,000 CL increase and an upgrade to gold. Well, I got my first statement since my gold card arrived in the mail yesterday. They actually gave me another $200 CL increase this month but the account still doesn't have a grace period as they promised. I'm going to call them on Monday and then go back to planetfeedback if I have to.
     
  2. DaveLV

    DaveLV Well-Known Member

    Okay -- I called Providian just now. I started with their standard customer service number. I told the woman who answered the telephone that I had been offered a gold upgrade to my Mastercard along with a grace period in May.

    The woman promptly told me that Providian doesn't offer accounts with grace periods and asked me if I wanted to close my account.

    I told her I didn't want to close my account, I just wanted my account to have the same terms that I accepted when I called.

    She then began reading the notes on my account and saw I was offered the gold card with $1,000 more credit and a grace period and what was my question? I told her that since my previous balance was zero and that there were finance charges on my latest statement that it didn't look to me like they gave me a grace period. She asked me if I had been hit with a late payment charge. I just said "Huh?"

    She then told me there were two types of grace periods. One was a finance charge grace period and one is a "payment" grace period. She told me that since I was charged interest that I must have been given a payment grace period. I told her that when I accepted the offer I understood that I was being given a grace period on finance charges.

    Then she told me that another department had authorized the change in account terms (which was true -- I had called retention directly) and would I like to speak with someone in that department. I said yes. She said "Our goal is 100% customer satisfaction, have I answered all of your questions today? Let me transfer you." And cut me off before I could tell her she'd been a complete chowderhead who had answered none of my questions.

    The retention people then told me I had a grace period on finance charges but said it takes 45 days to take effect. They credited me for this month's finance charge and thanked me for calling.

    Sheesh.
     
  3. hurricane5

    hurricane5 Well-Known Member

    Okay -- I went ahead and sent off my $49 for Providian... 23.9%, no grace period..but it's only a $300 limit (well $241 if I count the annual fee). So why did I get it? Well, they don't put an inquiry on your CR, and it's another card to have besides Cap 1 to help me rebuild my credit. My plan is to charge it and pay it every month (or multiple times a month) for about 6 months, then hit em up for the big increase...

    Thoughts anyone? and are there any more cards like this I should go after (I'm tired of throwing those Cross Country offers in the trash!)

    Thanks,
     
  4. DaveLV

    DaveLV Well-Known Member

    Be very good to that account. My first Providian card three years ago had a $300 limit (or maybe it was $500 -- I really don't remember because I wasn't really into credit as a hobby back then) and now three years later I have a gold Visa ($8,949 limit) and a gold Master card ($2,930 limit). And that's without me knowing how to get improved terms and limits from them until this March when I found this board.

    When I think of the times in the last few years when I was tempted to not send in that payment on time I shudder. It's never been because of money, but because I am lazy and some months I didn't feel like going out and buying that money order (I didn't have a checking account until May, 2000 because I was on Chex).
     
  5. Mirage

    Mirage Well-Known Member

    H5-

    I think you have the best of the sub-prime cards. Just keep the payments up. As for the Providian w/o the grace- go easy. The interest starts ticking the moment you use the card.

    Best regards,
    Sam
     
  6. texastrini

    texastrini Well-Known Member

    hurrican where did you get that deal? and did they really not pull a credit report?
     
  7. DaveLV

    DaveLV Well-Known Member

    I can't tell you if Providian pulled a hard inquiry on my for my first account because it's been too long, but I can tell you that for my second account (pre-approved for Mastercard) they did not.
     
  8. hurricane5

    hurricane5 Well-Known Member

    This offer came in the mail...I've received about 3 in the last 2 months...Funny thing is that I got another one in the mail TODAY (the same day I mailed the previous one back)...Subconciously, I think I was waiting to see if they upped the ante a litte :) With regard to the credit check...it was stated in BOLD on the letter "We do not need to check your credit"...I also called the 800 number to see if there was any way I could do the transaction over the phone (I hate mailing things) but it was a recording...it also said no credit check.

    The card is that new see-thru card with the smart chip (On the website, they said they will send a free smart card reader -- but I think that offer expires at the end of this month).

    Hope this helps...
     
  9. texastrini

    texastrini Well-Known Member

    I will go out to providian and check it out.

    I tear up and throw out all junk mail w/o discriminating.


    Do they at leat report to the CRA's?
     
  10. DaveLV

    DaveLV Well-Known Member

    Yep...they report every month.
     
  11. breeze

    breeze Well-Known Member

    I have a PVN visa with $6500 limit, and a MC with $2700 limit, I have been with them over 2 years - they have never pulled a credit report for anything.

    I got them down to 19.8%, working on better terms. I use the card a little bit now.

    breeze
     
  12. MiamiBlues

    MiamiBlues Well-Known Member

    Breeze,

    Write to Providian through Planet Feedback and request an APR reduction. I did that last month and got my APR reduced to 16.9% from 23.99%.

    Manny
     
  13. breeze

    breeze Well-Known Member

    Coo!!! what did you bitch about? LOL

    the interest rate? What did you say?

    breeze
     
  14. breeze

    breeze Well-Known Member

  15. MiamiBlues

    MiamiBlues Well-Known Member

    I asked them how the hell I was suppose to maintain a balance on a credit card with a 24% APR?!

    Manny
     
  16. breeze

    breeze Well-Known Member

    ROFLOL!! That's what I said to get the 19.8!! Maybe I should send them the statements from my other cards, showing the APR!!!

    The only one who won't budge at all is Associates, they are saying wait till I've had the stinking card one year. I used yahoo to transfer everything off it last month. Got a bill for $4.58 this month.

    breeze
     
  17. hurricane5

    hurricane5 Well-Known Member

    Re: hey Manny

    Breeze,
    Can you check that link for accuracy? Couldn't get it to work. Also, whtat does the site allow you to do?

    Thanks,
     
  18. breeze

    breeze Well-Known Member

    Re: hey Manny

    hurricane,

    Okay, do you get the page to load? It should be a java applet with your IP address on a button next to a little box where you can type in the domain name or URL of the site you want to check. If you don't get the page, I don't know why. If you get the page but think it doesn't do anything, I wil try to explain what to do.

    If you click on the button that displays your IP address (mine is 205.262.73.160 right now - yours will be different) - anyway click on that button and it will show you the "route" from their server back to your computer - it shows each of the computers it goes through to get there.

    If you type in the empty box - type the domain name, for instance (yahoo.com) then hit the enter key and it will show you the "route" to yahoo's servers. Do not click on the button, be sure you hit the enter key.

    If you are in another part of the country or the world, you can also try one of their other locations they are listed here:

    http://www.visualware.com/visualroute/livedemo.html

    Hope this helps.

    It is fun to look at it, and it will tell you if a server is offline. For instance, last night I was in the middle of checking my AmEx account and started getting error messages. I checked americanexpress.com on the visualroute server, and it showed me where it stopped. In red at the top of the page, it said that amex was "unreachable" so I quit trying - didn't waste my time.

    Yesterday, creditexpert.com was exptremely slow and took several tries to get a page to load completely - some of the pages would only load partially, but IE said the page was "done". I checked it on the visualroute and it said it was losing information packets at such and such a point. I think a computer along the way was having problems. Anyway, I stopped and didn't waste my time - went back later when it was working right.


    breeze
     

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