Paige's profile

Paige says: (12 months ago)

 +1

I have had an account with Advanta (Small Business Card) for slightly over two years. I signed up under the intro rate of 2.99% (life of balance transfer) - I never charged anything on the card other than what we transferred to it initially. We have excellent credit and have NEVER been late on this card (or ANY card). In May of this year I made an electronic payment which was 'kicked back' three days later due to insufficient bank routing #. I called and the lady told me they had a 'system glitch' over the weekend (I made the payment on Friday) and not to worry she would fix this to where I wasn't late and wouldn't owe a late fee. "Great!", I thought to myself, and went on about my life. In October of this year my husband just happened to notice my statement and that the rate was a whopping 20.31% !!

I have never, ever had a finance charge remotely like that in my entire life! I called Advanta and expressed my *concerns* and flounced around a bit. I told them that what they were doing was unethical and to reduce my rate. They declined. I was carrying a $7,100.00 balance at the time - Out of sheer disgust I found a way to pay the entire balance off by the next due date (last month) to avoid such unreasonable finance charges. I told them to CLOSE out my account and to kiss off essentially. Here is where it gets GOOD.

Listen to this CAREFULLY ...... SO I paid the ENTIRE BALANCE OFF, IN FULL, LAST MONTH at the outrageous rate of 20.31%....

I received a bill TODAY in the amount of $171.14 AT THE INTEREST RATE OF 37.18% !!! I called "Lana", a supervisor, who advised me that yes, they did increase the rate LAST MONTH and sent me a notice THAT I NEVER RECEIVED and told me I missed the "opt out" grace period if I wanted to refute the (SECOND) rate hike. The reasons they gave for the increase were totally bogus. I have a 800 beacon score and we have never charged anything on the card since I transferred the balance TWO YEARS AGO. This company is absolutely the WORST I have ever delt with. BEWARE! I don't know where to go from here, or even if all the reporting in the world (to various agencies) will make a difference but SOMETHING MUST BE DONE. I didn't even know a 38% interest rate EVEN EXISTED!! WOW. The most I have ever paid on a credit card at any point in my life was 9% during college! They jacked my rate up after sabotaging a late payment and jacked it up again AFTER I closed the account AND paid the balance in full! If I didn't have to pay off the $7,000 balance I could afford to hire an attorney just out of principle! Not sure what an attorney could do but certainly hiring one would be more effective than writing to Barney Frank (what a total embarrassment he is.... but that's a different story)

OK. WHERE'S MY BAILOUT? Companies like this deserve to fold like a cheap suit. Unfair lending practices, unethical (and I have to believe illegal) dealings and simply OBSCENE rate hikes -- HOSING GOOD paying customers and then those same customers have to BAIL their asses out with our tax dollars while they wine and dine in the Bahamas. Where's the justice and where's my bail out? Those rats should be forced to go down with the sinking ship...

I'm not done. I swear I'm going to keep screaming about this to anyone who will listen. I've never been so victimized by a company - EVER - and that's saying something!

I saw your post and decided I'd send my story. Lots of folks are really unhappy with Advanta right now. Let me know if I can help.


Paige
(Advanta Interest Rate Ripoff)