The Providian Financial credit card I had came with an initially low credit limit. As I began charging to it, they gradually increased it time and again. For years, I have always paid my balance off in full each month and when I discovered their "cash back" rebate program I joined it.
I began using the card like cash paying for EVERYTHING with it so I would run up thousands of dollars a month on the card, but I would ALWAYS pay off the balance each month to avoid their rediculously high interest rate.
For the past few years they would charge me an annual fee but whenever I called to have it revered, they did so. I was only a few months into the program when I had accumulated a little over a hundred and fifty dollars in "cash back" rebates owed to me by Providian. I suddenly saw a charge on my card for the annual fee so I once again called them to reverse the fee, but THIS time they would not budge and when I suggested that I would close the account if they didn't reverse the fee they happily complied and closed it.
I emailed them several times and they confirmed via email that they had reversed the fee several times before for me, but this time they would not. They also let me know that since I closed the account I forfeited the cash rebate as well.
So, the moral of the story is... Credit card companies assume they will make money off of you from finance charges, annual fees, up selling, late fees, etc... And they assume the amount they make will be MUCH more than whatever rebate you accrue.
The moment that you get a leg up on them, that you might actually make THEM pay YOU after years of abuse from high interest rates they will do everything they can to get rid of you so they don't have to pay out.
I was a good, on-time, pay-in-full, no hassle customer but because they could not make any money from me they couldn't get rid of me fast enough... And I believe all the credit limit increases... They were just Providian hoping that I would eventually run up a balance so high that I couldn't pay it off within the billing cycle. Unfortunately for them, that never happened.
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