I have been a small business cardholder with this company for several years. I have always been in good standing and have never been late with a payment. My credit score is very high and I maintain a healthy credit record. I had a fixed rate of 7.99% on my Advanta Small Business Platinum card. I was making 3X the minimum amount due. On my September 08 stmt, my rate jumped to over 26%. I called them and asked what on earth was going on and why they were trying to penalize me with such a drastic increase and I asked why I wasn't notified. They said they sent me a letter... Which I never received. I begged the customer service rep to reduce the finance charge that was over $350 and she refused, so I asked for a supervisor. It got worse from there.
When I asked the super why my rate more than tripled, she said that because of the economy, I was more apt to default on my payments and that I had become a higher risk. (Well yeah, I will now!). I asked if they were trying to drive their customers away on purpose. She was very distant & robot-like and non-responsive and all along acting as if she was reading a 'queue card' of sorts like she had repeated this answer a thousand times over. She kept saying she was sorry but no real empathy behind it at all. This enraged me. I told her to close my account and that they just lost a very good customer.
I paid off my account balance on Sept 30 in full (and by my closing date). I didnt even get an October stmt from then, so I went on line today to find that they charged me another $281 in finance charges when I have a zero balance. I begged & pleaded to another super today and she refused to remove it. I told her that I called and was told as long as the balance was paid in full by midnight Oct. 1st there would be no finance charge. She said the only thing that will 'save me' is if she reviews the phone call and hears the rep quoting me that verbatim. I told her you can review all the calls you want and that I am not paying anymore in finance charges. She said she can not 'review calls at her level' and that it could take several weeks to hear back from her. I'm not expecting a response.
I just filed a complaint with: www2. Fdic. Gov/starsmail/index.Asp as suggested by some others on this site. Let's band together folks. We can't keep getting ripped-off like this!!!
Furious in Colorado
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