I emailed Providian about the new fees for making payments online. This is what they had to say: In regards to payment fees, the fee for making a payment over the phone will be increased effective November 5, 2001. The fee will be increased to $9.95 and there will no longer be one free payment by phone per year. There continues to be no fee to make a payment online. This service is free to all Providian cardholders. Once registered, payments can be made online at www.providianservices.com. Also, for your convenience, you can enroll in our Recurring Payment program, which is free of charge. Of course, payments can also be sent by mail, either through regular or overnight delivery. We apologize for any confusion our statement insert may have caused.
That's useful information. I've already made one Providian payment online, and now I can keep that option open for the future.
How nice of them to apologize for any "Confusion" their stmt insert may have caused. Got my husbands package today for his getsmart card and it clearly states: If you use our On-Request Service for PaySmart to make a single payment by phone OR online from your personal checking to your credit card acct, we MAY charge a fee of $9.95. Hello, we don't sound confused, THEY do!! Now they're saying it just applies to phone payments???
Ok, now I'm beginning to wonder if that means if I make a payment through my banks homebanking (I do know they have to send Providian a check because they are not set up for on line payments) that they will charge the $9.95 fee. I think I'm going to e-mail them and find out exactly what that statement means about on line payment deducted from your checking account.
