I have the Providian gold $49.00 secured, with $450 limit. Just got the $500 increase for $100 offer. I believe I read somewhere that if I decline, Providian would give it to me shortly anyway without my having to shell out the 100 bucks? Will they still give the $500 increase, or will it be less? Offer says if I "decide not to take advantage, they will review my account next month as ususal for an unsecured credit line increase." Or, what I would prefer to do, is since the card is "secured" with the $49.00, and reporting as secured, is tell them I'd like to take the offer, if I can get card un-secured. Anyone have any luck with this? Thanks for any help. This is my first offer from Providian, and wanted to get it right. I have their card, and Cap1 unsecured with 500 limit, both 5 months old, and really need to get my credit back on track after 6 years of credit hell. Thanks again, Dan
RE: Providian increase...Take NO...never pay the increase "fee". I have had my providian card for over 1 year and they always give me the increase anyway. about 1 month later or so. Never pay these thugs anything more then you must!
RE: Providian increase...Take Wow, this time is $100 fee for $500 increase? In my days it was $99 fee for $1000 increase... anyway, I don't think it's worth paying that much for so little. They will probably increase it next months anyway. Maybe not $500, the usual if you have around $500 credit line is $200 increase. The secret to getting cheap increases from Providian is to use the card close to max and then pay it off. If you carry a balance you'll probably be even more appreciated, but it will cost you dearly. I started my Providian at $500 and I had it at $1100 after 6 months. Now (13 months) I'm at $3100. I admit that I paid a $49 fee for $1000 increase and APR reduction, but I couldn't resist )
RE: Providian increase...Take I've received an offer too. I too recalled folks here saying "wait and they will offer a free increase". But I am so tempted. My offer (I thought it would for $1000) is a $600 increase for $99. I believe I am going to wait especially since they gave me a $100 increase when making the offer. The $100 increase was provided to "cover" the $99 fee.
RE: Providian increase...Take I agree with Sorin. The $100 fee for only a $500 increase is excessive. I also agree that they would probably give you a $200 increase very soon anyway. Let me tell you about my last increase from Providian. I can hardly remember now, because they've given me so many, but I can still reconstruct it as follows: I was at an $1800 limit, up from $500 in December 1999. Then they gave me a $200 increase right before they offered me $1000 more for a $49 fee. I think the smaller increase was to soften me up for the paid offer, to get me thinking about more credit. I accepted the $1000, since the fee seemed reasonable compared to the $99 I paid for my first $1000 increase. So I accepted the offer, and my new limit was $3050, including a $50 increase for the fee. Then they increased me by another $200 within about a month, and then I got another $100 in honor of my one year anniversary. It even said that on my next statement. Incidentally, I have kept large balances on my Providian Visa and rarely paid much more than the minimum. They still gave me $700 in free increases, as well as $2150 for which I paid "upgrade fees." However, I refuse to pay any more fees. Since I can probably get other cards on better terms soon, I don't care if I ever get another increase from them. But Providian was a very good way to get lots of credit, buy things I needed, and put a large limit on my credit reports.
About Providian Kevin, I appreciate your feelings, but disagree with your referring to Providian as "thugs." There were elements of deception and illegality in their practices as recently as two years ago, but they seem to have cleaned up their act in those areas. They credit my payments on time, give me lots of limit increases, always tell the truth about their outrageous fees, deliver whatever they specifically promise, and never send me junk mail for anything but credit line increases. I have done a lot worse. Capital One comes to mind... However, we do need to beware of their "Trojan Horse" strategy. They are obviously trying to get us in debt quickly, at very high interest rates, and then keep us from transferring our balances. Maybe a high limit can get you higher limits on other cards, but after a while a $6000 or $7000 limit from Providian would scare away prime creditors. Too much available credit is one of the major reasons given on rejection letters. In addition, when they offer a Visa cardholder the MasterCard, they are trying not only to collect another outrageous annual fee, but to increase our open accounts and thereby discourage prime creditors from giving us a chance. But it's all out in the open. While there is admittedly an insatiable greed behind their strategy, our own greed leads us to knowingly accept their overpriced cards. They're tricky but not dishonest, and I personally believe we should save the term "thugs" for companies that continually lie and cheat. (For example, Cross Country Bank, First USA, Experian, and the nastier collection agencies.) But I do respect your feelings.
RE: Providian increase...Take Based on my own experience, I think they would give you another $100 to cover the fee. The first $100 looks like a ploy to make you grateful and distort your judgment about the offer.
RE: Providian increase...Take There are ways to get increases from Providian w/o paying any fees. It has been thoroughly discussed in the following thread: http://board.creditnet.com/read.php3?num=1&id=19162&loc=0&thread=19162 Please note that so far we had no reports as to whether it also works with secured cards. Saar