Hey Everyone....sorry I haven't been on much lately. I got a new promotion at work and I have been wayyyy busy. My problem that I need your assistance with is regarding our fine friend Providian. I am steadily cleaning up my credit but I have Providian updating my reports monthly with derogatory information. The account was opened in Jan 96 and was closed and forwarded to collections in May 96. I, frankly, don't remember such a card, but it may very well be mine. Three months ago, I call them and they tell me on the phone that they can't find the records and a specialist will call me back. No one calls. I call again 2 months ago and the girl on the phone finds the account and tells me that it is indeed mine and that it was a secured credit card where I put down 300 dollars as security. The total balance due now is $344. I ask her for proof of charges and that it would seem to me that they owe ME money and she said she would mail the account transaction history to me immediately. Well, I just got a letter from them. Nothing but a simpled statement. No proof. No transaction history. Nothing. What I would like to do is.... 1.) Resurrect this account. Doubtful I can do that and they don't seem to know much about it anyway. Does anyone have an idea? 2.) Make the account go away since they don't seem to be able to show proof of charges. This would jump my scores significantly. Any ideas? I really appreciate your help
I guess it has been a while since you were on the board. If you had been on lately you would have known that wehn dealing with creditors and collection agencies one should always do it by letter so you have a paper trail to work with. Phone calls can be recorded and can be used in court if necessary under certain conditions, but thats not the best way to go. Of course, you did right by demanding proof which you never got, but if you had done that by letter, you would be well on your way to forcing them to forget about the idea that yo ever owed them any money. I'd recommend you read around the board a bit and see what's been going on over the last few months.
Hey Toothman! How R U ? Glad to see you sneaking around - I dumped Providian by the way. FYI - in the SF Chronicle business section today, there was an article where PROVIDIAN was now going to "EASE UP ON SOME RULES" for their select list of targeted customers. It went on to say that late fees would not be charged if not received within 3 days after the due date - there would be more flexibility but it did not elaborate! (Probably 1 extra hour LOL) ALSO CRITICAL: Providian will not charge an over limit fee to this targeted customer group. TARGET GROUP: Customers offered super prime limits and rates - only for those who have superb credit ratings - and stellar high incomes. Thx Providian for your help to 1% of your customers! LOL Dogman
To Dogman: Providian I could not find any article on Providian in the July 27 or July 28 SF Chronicle business section. Could you give me the page number and check the date of the article? Thanks, I appreciate it.
Hey, Dogman... Good to see you, brother!! I've been traveling so much that I haven't been on the board very often. What I am going to do is send out the standard validation letter. The reason I called in the first place was because 1st Premier was very nice to rehab my card and I would love to rehab a card with a 5 year old tradeline. Alas, not to be. Any other ideas?
