Real BIG mess with Providian. Help.

Hello, I'm new to this board. I'm currently a member of 2 other boards and have posted my dilema there. However, I've been reading through some threads here and really like the different angles and information I am gathering here. With that said, I seek advice regarding an ugly mess with Providian Financial.

After 9/11, I placed my 2 Providian cards under a CCCS plan. I now realize that this was a bad move. Since July 2002, I've had the CCCS co. withdraw funds from my checking account and disburse to Providian. I've never missed a payment or been late. However, when I pulled my credit reports this past February, I was dismayed to see a 30 days late, 3 (60 days late), and 16 (90 days late) on one of the cards. The other card had 2 scattered 30 days late.

Now, all these "past due" entries took place while I was in the CCCS program. I quickly called CCCS and explained the problem. Incredibly, Providian pulls up records and confirms that I have indeed payed them every month. However, they claim that CCCS never called to reage the accounts once Providian accepted me into the CCCS plan. The way I understand it, this means that my new minimum payments were less than my original minimum payments. Since reaging never took place, the computer system looked at as if I wasn't making the minimum payment, thus sending me late every month. CCCS of course claims Providian is supposed to do it automatically after 3 consecutive on-time payments. They also contend that if Providian indeed requires a phone call to reage, CCCS co. never received any documentation of memo stating such.

Last week of March, my CCCS representative called with great news. After much haggling, a Providian CSR with some good sense agreed to go back and remove the "past dues" and bring the accounts current. Great, I thought. I figured I could now safely cancel CCCS and deal with Providian personally and pay of the balance in the next few months.

Not so. I check my CRs in about a month, and although Providian begins to report me current as of March, they've left the "past dues" prior to March on my report. A call to Providian CSRs was useless. So much so that she actually suggested I be glad that they lowered my interest and waived fees when they accepted me into CCCS plan. And then when I asked why she thought it was fair that even though I've paid, and she knows I've paid every month, why should they have any grounds to report me as late? Her response is astonishing. She claims Providian does not guarantee reaging of accounts simply because they accept a debt management plan.

So clearly, I'm dealing with incompetents here. I signed up with a CCCS after 9/11 because I was unemployed for 6 months (I live in NY) and thought it was the responsible thing to do. Otherwise, I would have had no choice but to default on these cards as I was simply running out of money. Clearly CCCS has done more harm than good and I've learned my lesson the hard way. I will say, to the CCCS' credit, that they are trying to help and that this wasn't one of those cases where they simply failed to pay Providian. Every payment was made on time.

So here's what I've done so far. I disputed with CRAs originally in February. It came back verified by Providian. Then I let my CCCS give it shot. They thought they had an agreement to remove everything, but clearly Providian is now singing a different tune. I've since disputed directly with Providian on May 5th, and then disputed with all 3 CRAs on May 10th 2004. Now I wait.

In my mind, Providian is clearly in some kind of violation here. Regardless of whether someone forgot to reage or not, the fact is Providian accepted the terms of the debt management plan and I have fulfilled my end of bargain flawlessly since entering such agreement in July 2002. When a lender pulls my report, they are seeing misleading information, because it shows derrogatories that simply aren't true and my statement history clearly proves that.

Can anyone comment on whether I have enough grounds for suit if they fail to change the information this final time around? After all, I disputed in February, had my CCCS intricately involved since the beginning and have a record stating that they originally agreed to remove the items. I now have officially established a paper trail. What else can I do? What have I missed here that may further help me.

Any comments will be greatly appreciated. I'm sorry this was so long. I tried cutting off as much as I could to make it less painful to read.

thanks,
Camilo