In tonightâ??s mail I got a letter from Providian, nice yellow envelope CONGRATULATIONS-UPGRADE INCLOSED! Youâ??ve Earned It! Congratulations â?? your account has been upgraded to Platinum. No annual fee (already had that) 25-day grace period and convenience checks. No card just convenience checks. 16.9% on the convenience checks. Thatâ??s a joke. All the terms and conditions says starting 10/02 the followingâ?¦ I just received my statement today too. So does that mean I get my Platinum card in October? After the last day or two with nothing but bad news, this perked me up a little.
Did you request the upgrade, or did they just give it to you? Upgrade from Visa Gold or ? Oh, and congrats!
I didn't ask for the upgrade, just came in the mail. I have a Visa Gold. I got the card 4/99. When the card comes I'm calling for increase, I haven't had an increase in 6 months.
Congrats! Have you used your card at all in the last several months? I haven't used mine at all since February, but not recieved anyhting from them since then.
Niceguy, I just closed one of my providian accounts when they refused to lower the interest rate. The lady told me that one of the first things the computer looks for is if you use the card every month. Doesn't matter how good your credit is if you don't use the card monthly apparently. At any rate, I haven't used my remaining card in several months either and earlier tonight, I PFB'd Providian to try to find out what they look for. Here's a copy of my mutterings and ramblings: TO: Joseph W. Saunders, CEO Providian Financial Corporation 201 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94105 FROM: whyspers RE: PLANETFEEDBACK REFERENCE NUMBER Dear Mr. Saunders, I am writing with a question about the finance charges at Providian Financial Corporation. Can you please explain to me just how I would go about getting Providian to reconsider my interest rate? I have gone through heavy use of the card and paying it off monthly, to no use of the card and carrying a balance and neither method seems to have benefited my interest rate. I've had the card for several years and rarely do I not pay well over the minimum payment. None of my credit reports (from Experian, TransUnion and Equifax) have any late pays or any other type of negative entries. I have a credit history that is over 12 years old and have approximately 20 positive tradelines. Various other credit card companies have given me much higher credit limits and much, much lower interest rates (as low as 9.9%) and yet Providian not only does not lower my interest rate, I find out it has been bumped up to 29.9%. Naturally I will be paying off the card prior to that interest rate taking affect, and probably be putting the card in the sock drawer until someone from Providian says...hey, this person certainly does not represent a high credit risk and was put in a high risk category by mistake. All rambling aside, can you please explain to me exactly what Providian looks for when deciding the interest rate? Do I use the card, not use the card, pay off monthly, carry a balance...what???? Any insight you can provide me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for considering my query. I look forward to your response. Sincerely, whyspers
des i guess its better then getting a letter from providian. since you.ve been a great customer for 3 years, we have decided to close your account.
They upgraded me a month ago from the gold to the no fee platinum..They lowered the purchase apr to 11.99% but new purchases are 1.9% till Febuary.My cash advance is 16.99%..Didn't get a increase so i pfb them and got $1,000 no charge a total line of $7,500 However as stupid as it sounds i can't do BT's and i pfb them asking..They say NO.. I said what a joke still!
Thats nuts. I have an old account that was closed for 2 late payments. I am still paying it off and the rate is 23.9%. Yours is active and you get hit with 29.9%? Insane company.
We were upgraded too, but only to an 18.9% APR. Did get the $1000 CL increase though. We carried a balance for 3 years and paid it off in Dec after they jacked us to 29.99. They said the jacking was "in error" and returned us to our previous "low" 23.99%. Lately we have made large single purchases ($2-5K) and paid them off monthly. Our upgrade notice came about a month ago, but the Plat. card only arrived a couple of days ago. In contrast, we also got an upgrade notice for the GetSmart. That one has been sock drawered completely since last Dec. The offer included a 1.9% new purchase promo. So, after we pay this month's Prov. bill it will head to the sock drawer till they decide to at least offer a good promo deal. DemPooches
I got an upgrade too! Last month they raised my cl from 2k to 3k without me asking. I hadn't been using the card for a few months and had a zero balance. Then in my mail yesterday was a letter indicating that BT's and purchases would be 1.9% until April 2003 and then the go-to would be prime plus 7.24%, currently 11.99%. My interest rate previously with them was 16.99%. There are no fees with a BT. Seems pretty nifty to me! Think I'm actually gonna use my Providian/Get Smart card now! I've had the card since 12/01. Ozzy.
I just got my letter yesterday. This will be my second upgrade. The first one occured when they upgraded my VISA Gold to Plat. status. No change in APR or CL. As a matter of fact I have only received a $60.00 CL increase in the last 6 months. The newest upgrade is the MC (Blue colored) to Plat. status. I stopped using this card since the start of summer. The letter I got is that it will be converted to a Plat. MC card with a grace. This is better than what I have now (no grace). Of course the lack of usage has given me a $1700.00 cl so I have a toy Plat. card. Best regards, Mirage
