Hi Miles, I got my letter from Providian today. Alexis Sheilds wrote me from the corporate office re my letter via PFB on a grace period. She still denied me a grace period, telling me to review the terms of the account that I signed up for and that it clearly did not include a grace period. She also wrote that my "type of account" did not qualify for a grace period. What's ridiculous about it is that she wrote that Providian was committed to ensuring usage of their products and wanted to maintain a long relationship with their customers and hope I would continue using the card even though they could not reach my objective. All this after I cleary wrote that there was NO WAY I could use the card now without a grace period for purchases. They obviously don't want my business, and as soon as I get another credit line matching the one from Providian, I'm closing the account. Hope you have better results than I did, Marci
What particular card did you try to get a grace on. We need to see what card people have on this board and WHO can and WHO cannot get a grace and compare notes. I love my Providian cards except for the fact the neither has a grace. I can also see myself eventually dumping them because of this. In my situation they have the larges limits by far of my other cards. So I only make LARGE purchases with them and then try to pay them within 90 days. Basically these are over 2K purchases that are highly planned. A grace would make these cards more usuable. Maybe I need to write Planet Feedback and we can get a ball rolling.
FatJake, I have a 2.5 year old account that was upgraded fromclassic to gold late last year. The original terms of the account were no GP, and AF of $59 and 23.9% APR. The original limit was $500. Since then I have significantly raised my credit limit, gotten the AF refunded and lowered the APR to 19.8%. New card users are getting preapprovals with the GP, so there is no reason why older card users are able to get one either, except that Providian is being illogical on this point. It makes no sense to me, and even less sense that Providian is willing to lose a good customer as they have just lost me based on some arbitrary category of "sub-prime". Especially when the new subprime accounts being created have the grace period. Marci
Providian I filed for BK in Nov 1998 and discharged it in Feb. 1999. I sarted rebuilding credit immediately in Nov. '98. After some months, I began to receive Providian offers. Terrible offers at first. I ignored them and by last December, I was getting preapproved (up to $3K, no annual fee and a 25 day grace, 23.99% apr.) offers every week. I got the $3K card in Jan. '01. In March, I complained to Providian via Planet Feedback. A week later, I received a letter reducing my apr from 23.99% to 19.8%. They threw me a bone to shut me up. In 3 to 9 months I will call retention and threaten to close the account. I expect another apr. reduction. I do not regret ignoring all those earlier Providian offers because the longer you hold out the better the terms. BTW - Providian is OK in my mind. They are my 4th visa card since my BK. I am looking forward to future limit increases from Providian. My other 3 cards are at 13.9% apr. and that fact will benefit me when I negotiate a lower apr. again.
Re: Providian Marci, Sounds like we have similiar situations. Same account time and I went from 1k classic to 6k Gold. I just got the 19.8 APR reduction. Later this year I'm going to write for the grace and the 16.?? APR. Jim, Sounds like you are doing great since BK. What are your other cards? Did you start at 13% or did you work down to it?
To: Jake Before I answer your question, I want to mention that I discovered this board by accident 6 months ago. I was doing "well" on my own BUT since I started reading the board, I have done extremely well due to the fine contributors here. Now the answer. - Two visas are with credit unions. Everyone gets 13.9% fixed. They did demand to see evidence of the injury that caused the BK. They liked my explanation and treated me like any other customer. However, without the explanation I would have been denied credit for many years. Credit Unions are like that. Cap One started as a 1K, 25 day grace, $29 annual fee, 21% appox apr. $99 secured card granted in Nov. '98. The same month I filed my BK. After a year, they unsecured the card and eliminated the annual fee when I complained verbally. In Jan 2001 the apr. was reduced to 17.8 when I again complained verbally. In March I used Planet Feedback. The result is a reduction to 13.9 variable. The limit has grown to $3,300. Not bad for Cap One. Hope this helps.
Re: To: Jake marci, thanks for keeping me updated on you journey. I'm sorry they didn't do anything for you. That is CRAZY. I have not received any response from them as of yet. I have always enjoyed the service I have received from Providian, but I am really DISGUSTED by the way they treat long standing customers who have managed their accounts well. I am not disputing that they have helped me tremendously when I was down, but that was FIVE years ago and once a customer has improved their credit standing, you would think they would do everthing they can to retain a proven low risk customer. I am worn out and really don't care what they do for me anymore. The card is just as good as gone after my other accounts age a while. I will just use them enough to keep the account open and show activity. This is really sad! :-0 BTW, I don't want to discourage anyone who already has an account with Providian or those who are seeking credit to build or rebuild. I still recommend them as they have good customer service, frequent increases and the newbies are receiving better account terms than the older ones. However, when you are able to move into prime, don't expect any upgrades to platinum. Move on to another company.
Re: To: Jake Thanks Jim, I bank at two credit unions right now. When I had a few thousand to put into a secured account I thought of going to them and getting a card but I'm too chicken. The city I'm in is medium size but you would thing it was a one stop light town as frequest as you see people and how often you see people are related. Basically I want to keep my Chapter 7 under wraps. I'm making no income right now as a student so it's not even an issue now. When I get back into the real working world I think I'll try them. (I'll be moving soon after anyway). BTW I love credit unions for there lack of fee's. I'm going to try to work my Cap one as you have done. I'm not too much into ther verbal thing but I vcan type my a$$ off. So we can see how far that will get me. THANKS!
