I am in the process of filing a Federal complaint against Advanta Credit Card company for consumer complaint, failing to comply with Regulation Z and the Fair Credit and Billing Act.
For more details, please see http://www.understandingfinancials.com/advanta%20complaint.htm
Nov. 2007 I applied for a credit card from Advanta with a zero interest rate for 12 months.
Dec 2007 I paid my bill in full and on time for $276; $90 paid Dec 7th and $186 paid Dec 18th. I made the payment thru BofA BillPay who has confirmed the payment was made.
Jan 2008 I received a notice from Advanta that $90 was overdue. Apparently the $90 paid on Dec 7th was not applied to my Dec bill. However I had no bill due in November so to which bill was my Dec 7th $90 payment applied? I contacted customer representatives who refused to acknowledge that the payment had been made. They refused to tell me to what bill the payment was applied. My bank records clearly state that I paid Advanta $90 on Dec 7th and $186 on Dec 18th. So what is the problem ... Advanta refused to acknowledge the payment was made in full and on time! The Dec 7th $90 payment was never applied to any bill but was absorbed by their billing software. This is the payment Advanta alleges is overdue when in fact it was payment to the Dec 2007 payment due (paid in a timely manner).
You would think sending Advanta a copy of bank receipts of these payments would have solved the issue. But this is not in Advanta's best interests. Manufacturing late fees and increasing the promised Zero percent interest to 29.99% is in their interests and doing so by whatever means necessary. Hang the law and put the requirement on the customer to prove the payments were made. Advanta Ms. Mindie Emmertson, Account Specialist, BBB liason, simply refused to address the issue in 2 letters (sent by return receipt and received). Convenient for them temporarily. I'm just building my stack of well documented evidence.
I've received multiple weekly calls in the last six months including 11+ just today in a 4 hour period - May 28th, 2008. This just confirms that Advanta employees are completely ignorant of the laws under which they are obligated to conform for the privilege of acting as a Bank under FDIC regulation. I will subpoena the entire list of all calls, including transcripts and voice versions, made to my home as evidence of abuse. The ignorance of the law demonstrated by customer service making 11 harassing phone calls in 4 hours was similar to the customer service identifying a payment made in full and on time as overdue. As a result in my request for restitution I will request that all Advanta employees undergo training in all the federal laws that apply to Advanta because it is absolutely apparent that they have not been properly trained. The arrogance with which the Advanta employees act gives me reason to believe the law breaking is purposeful. 11 harassing phone calls in 4 hours is substantial evidence to support this premise amounting to to $1000 in punitive damages.
I sent a certified letter to Advanta requesting they stop phoning my home. I received their signature that they received my letter.
On June 9, 2008, my home received (2) additional phone calls from Advanta in violation of the law requiring them to 1) stop phoning my home on written request 2) stop the harassing phone calls which the 2 calls in 1 day amounted to. This second incident of harassing phone calls requires that an additional $1000 punitive damages should be imposed upon Advanta.
The overdue charge, which was for a $90 payment that had actually been made in full and on time, triggered late fees and increased my interest rate from 0 to 29.99%.
In Feb 2008 I provided my bank records of payment made to Advanta. They answered my letter with nonsense and never acknowledged my bank records showing the payments were paid in full and on time. It was apparent they had no intention of addressing the issue of my bank records because then they would have had to acknowledge that the payments were in fact paid on time. It was very apparent to me that Advanta customer service representatives were not incompetent but were actively engaged in the illegal conduct of the company, that is manufacturing late fees to increase interest rates.
I contacted the FTC (Fair Credit Billing Act), FDIC (Regulation Z), BBB, and locally the Nevada Attorney General's office.
The FDIC added my complaint to the list of issues to be reviewed during their next audit of Advanta.
The Utah BBB added my complaint to their list of 240 complaints against this company.
I am in the process of writing a Federal Complaint against Advanta Bank Corp which will be posted online late May or early June 2008.
I have found over 150+ complaints of the same abuse of illegally increasing our interest rates of 30% plus. They did this to me in August. I lost about $600 in interest before I could transfer my balance.
If your interested in joining a class action lawsuit that attorney Alan Finkel is putting together, please contact me at (remove pluses to get e-mail as they block it from spam: dec+458+@+msn+.com.
I am in the process of paying down my card. However, I refuse to use it again ever. They are theives. Because of of an accidental late payment of ONE day they increased the interest rate ridiculously citing that because of great credit use they reported by the credit bureaus they were increasing their interest rates.
Great way to "help" a small business.
They are greedy con artists. Taking advantage of small business starters. If only I'd known.
I have an account with Adanta and I had to close my business back in may. I continued to make payments to them, as well as all my other creditors, but my new job pays me $1500 a month less than i was taking form the business. I called all the creditors to tell them of this and many have worked with me,,except Advanta and WAMU. I called Advanta in July when i realized I was going to ahve issues and they refused to work with me. The I would get calls all the time after i had made arrangements with them to pay from their call center in India, where english is not well undrestood,or spoken. I did finally get to a supervisore in PA who said that in the 11 years she had worked for Advanta she had never known them to work with a customer on payment plan..just pay the bill that you owe. I told her I could not and she said' i see you have done everything correctly but there is no program for you.
I was able to scrape together $100 to send them ( the accouint is 90 days past due) this and as I was mailing it and know it was not ewhat was due, but was all i could afford so I was making some effort to pay them.I got a call from there next level of collection who belittled me called me a dead beat, and said that no one at advanta would work with me. Unless I went to credit counselling...told them i did and was told bankruptcy was my only answer which I did not want to do so would they work with me to save thier balance and I was told we have no programs for you...got to counselling. I spoke to a supervisor there and he agressive, and not willing to listen to what i was saying. told me that they do not ahve to follow collection laws because they are collecting a business debt and collection laws do not apply...they can call me as much as they want....I mentioned that I ahd asked not to be called at my job and he said this is a business debt we can do what we want...now pay us...
I would if I could but I cannot...and I guess they are going to forece me into bankruptcy. i am 54 years old, never a late payment until this happened and my life is ruined becasue of this bank.
4. Written by concerned person, on 25-09-2008 08:00
Why is that if everyone is so pissed off at Advanta, that they are allowed to advertise at the top of your home page? I hate them also but am confused by this.
5. Written by Advanta rip off customer 102, on 16-09-2008 18:15
Just like many of you, I am also a very small businessman tried to make a living in the US on a day to day basis. I never missed to make a monthly payment. This month, they raised my interest rate to 35% on Advanta Credit Card. They will not reduce it no matter what now. What to do! Helpless in America!
I have found a list of gang members who are acting criminal acts and they are free as OJ Simpson.
Every chance you get, please distribute this list wherever you can. We need real bad publicity about Advanta crimes to small business folks.
Gang of White-Collar Crime Board at Advanta Corporation
1) Dennis Alter - Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Corporate Governance Committee
$992,212 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
2) William A. Rosoff - Vice Chairman, President and Member of Corporate Governance Committee
$750,000 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
3) Philip M. Browne - Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Advanta Corp
$583,646 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
4) David B. Weinstock - Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer Advanta Crop.
$304,993 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
5) John F. Moore - President of Advanta Bank Corp
$303,968 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
6) Olaf Olafsson - Executive Vice President at Time Warner Inc
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
7) Max Botel - Independent Director, Chairman of Compensation Committee and Member of Audit Committee,
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
Thomas P. Costello - Independent Director and Chairman of Audit Committee
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
9) Ronnie Lubner - Chairman of Belron International Ltd.,
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
10) Michael Aaron Stolper - Partner at Veritable, LP
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
11) Dana Becker Dunn - Director of Advanta Corp
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
12) William A. Rosoff - President and Vice Chairman of Advanta Corp.
$750,000 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
13) Mark A. Barnes - Group Chief Executive Officer of Capital Alliance Holdings.
$1,080,000 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
14) Craig Carter - Executive Director at Avasa Holdings Ltd.
$1,135,000 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
15) Shaun L. Rai - Chief Executive Officer of Cape Empowerment Trust
$1,990,000 total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
16) Thembeka Gwagwa - Non-executive Director, Purple Capital Ltd.
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
17) Alex W. Hart - Advisor, Paymetric, Inc.
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
1 Richard A. Greenawalt - Chief Executive Officer and Director at Arcadia Financial Ltd
$000,000 hided total amount ripped off from small businessman like us.
I wrote an Advanta Bank credit check as part of a downpayment on an automobile. My local lending institution said that the check was returned due to insufficient funds.
Upon contacting Advanta Bank to find out what was wrong, they had sent the amout to Sears Roebuck.
I don't even have an account with
Sears. The check was made out to my local lending institution. How could any sane person think it was to go to Sears. They did an investigation and the payment was
Slightly different problem...I balance transferred $5,000 no interest. i was told at the time as I paid it off I could use it as a regular credit card. So I charged airline tickets with the intent to pay that off and continue with my monthly payments on the transfer. I just received my statement..they are charging me finance charge DAILY onn the $979 for the tickets and will NOT allow me to pay those off until my no interest balance transfer is paid off!! Go* only knows how much this is going to cost me ( a small business owner) but all I got from the "supervisor" was " payment hierarchy is non negotiable". I plan to cut my two cards up and send pieces with my payments each month until I can SHUT THIS CARD DOWN!! STAY FAR FAR AWAY FROM THIS LYING, SUBVERSIVE COMPANY!!!
I request u too do my reversal late fees & interest charges,but you people r not taking care of my account.as i am a good customer to you.You can see my previous records & i won the OCT, NOV ,DEC, GIFT OFFER also.Then too ur customer services to me is very poor.
I HAVE ONLY ONE OPTION WHERE I CAN PAY MY BILL AMOUNT IS CHEQUE DROP BOX
NO ATM CENTRE IN MY CITY
NO BARCLAY BANK IN MY CITY
TOLL FREE CUSTOMERCARE NUMBER IS NOT WORKING
EVEN I TRIED YOUR OTHER CUSTOMERCARE NUMBERS ALSO THEY NOT AT ALL ATTENDING MY CALLS FOR A LONG & I WASTED A LOT OF AMOUNT FOR THAT STD CHARGES
Barclaycard bills online IS NOT TIE UP WITH MY BANK ACCOUNT
CASH COLLECTION EXECUTIVES ARE NOT COMING.
SEE THE BELOW OF MY DATAILS OF ACCOUNT WHERE YOUR LATE FEESES & INTEREST RATE R CHARGES TO MY ACCOUNT WHEN I PAID THE CHEQUE ON TIME.
STATEMENT PERIOD - AMOUNT - DUE DATE - LATE FESS & INTEREST - ACTUAL AMOUNT
CHARGES & TAX
1. MAR 12 TO APR 12,2008 19605.37 2nd MAY ------- 19605.37
* (HERE I PAID CHEQUE ON 27-04-2008 TO UR CHEQUE DROOP BOX BEFORE THE DUE DATE)
2. APR 12 TO MAY 12,2008 4792.03 2nd JUNE 1327.03 3465.OO
(WHEN I PAID THE CHEQUE ON TIME THEN WHY THIS CHARGES)
3. MAY 12 TO JUNE 12, 2008 5371.11 2nd JULY 1906.11 SAME
(AS PER I SPOKE WITH YOUR PAYMENT CUSTOMER CARE OFFICER MR. VIVEK ON 04-06-2008 TO REVERSE MY LATE FEES & REVERSE INTEREST ,
HE ACCEPTED & UNDERSTAND THIS MATTER & HE TOLD ME TO PAY IMMEDIATELY MIN AMOUNT Rs.240/- BY CHEQUE TO YOUR DROOP BOX,BECAUSE
YOUR CASH COLLECTION EXECUTIVE HAS NOT COME TO COLLECT THAT CASH,SO I DROP CHEQUE IN DROP BOX .AND ALSO HE SAID THAT HE WILL UPDATE
THAT MATTER & HE WILL REVERSE MY PREVIOUS CHARGES & THIS MONTH CHARGES ALSO,ON BELIEVE HIS WORDS I PAID THAT CHEQUE TO YOUR DROOP BOX)
4. JUNE 12 TO JULY 12, 2008 6122.23 IMMEDIATELY 2657.23 SAME
ACTUL AMOUNT - Rs.3465/-
LATE FEES,INTEREST & TAX AMOUNT Rs.2657.23
------------------------
TOTAL AMOUNT - 6122.23
------------------------
ACTUAL AMOUNT 3465.00
PAID AMOUNT 240.00
--------------
ACTUAL TOTAL AMOUNT 3225.00
--------------
PLEASE TRY TO UNDERSTAND THIS MATTER & DO THE NEEDFUL FOR ME.
I AM READY TO PAY MY ACTUAL AMOUNT Rs.3225/- BUT NOT THIS CHARGES
EVEN I SEND YOU MANY MAILS & ALSO MANY UPDATE THIS ISSUE TO YOUR PAYMANT CUSTOMER CARE EXECUTIVES .
BUT NO USE STILL I AM WAITING FOR YOUR REPLY ONCE YOU REVERSE MY CHARGES SO I CAN PAY MY ACTUAL AMOUNT.
I AM RECIEVING EVERYDAY CALLS FROM YOUR PAYMENT DEPARTMENT THEY HARASHMENT ME ,THEY TALK ROUDLY & THIS IS NOT GOOD TO GIVE THIS TYPE OF SERVICES TO YOUR COSTOMERS.THIS FOR YOUR KIND INFORMATION THAT TAKE CARE OF YOUR PAYMENT COLLECTION PEOPLE I HAVE RECORDED ALL THE CONVERSATION WITH YOUR PAYMENT CUSTOMER CARE EXECUTIVE & ONE OF THAT RECORDED MP3 FILE I SEND TO YOU ALSO BUT YOU BARCLAY NO RESPONSE.(SEE THE ATTACHED MP3 FILE)
AS SOON AS POSSIBLE JUST INFORM ME OR MAIL ME THE ACTUAL AMOUNT I HAVE TO PAY WITHOUT LATE FEES, TAX & INTEREST
I want to bring to your attention a banking practice that I think should be illegal.
After being solicited for a credit card from Advanta Bank, based on a 15 month interest free period, I transferred $5,000 to the credit card. I have made my payments on time, and in fact made one payment early. That was the problem. It appears payments cannot be made before the statement has been mailed. Advanta have now nullified my agreement with them (something buried in the small print) and are charging me $70 a month in interest charges – and all for paying them early, maybe by a week or so. If I’d paid late (Heaven forbid) I’d have probably been Hung, Drawn and Quartered.
When I recognized the mistake I called their office in India and was told it was all OK – just don’t pay early again. But they did not correct the matter and repay my interest charges as the Indian gentleman said they would. I now have to pay in quite a narrow window. Too early more interest, too late – God knows. This is just not right, certainly not for paying early which I thought they would be pleased about. This is just a loophole to get the consumer to transfer funds then hit them with high interest charges. People don’t read all that fine print and what can you do about it anyway if you don’t like it, we all need a credit card.
Best to avoid Advanta altogether and complain to FDIC as I have just done. Dreadful people to deal with.
Advanta pulled the same crap on me. Always paid on time, never missed a payment. I had a rate of 7.99% for everything, purchases, cash advances, etc... Then one day I logged on to see that my monthly payment went up much higher than usual. I checked my interest rate and noticed that my purchases were hiked up to 20.49% and everything else was at 30.49%.
I immediately called Advanta to find out what went wrong and they said that they sent out a letter notifying me of the rate increase. This is total and utter BS because I never received such a letter. They claim it was mailed separately from my statements and that they are not responsible for lost mail or anything.
Funny how I've always received every piece of mail from them except for this so-called imaginary letter they supposely mailed out notifying me my rates were going up. To make matters worse, they couldn't give me any specific reason as to why my rates are going up. I escalated the case to a supervisor and was pretty much told the same thing. Basically she said F*** off. I escalated again to her supervisor (or so I think) and was told that they couldn't do anything.
They all said that I had up til July 2nd to opt out and they would have kept me at the 7.99% rate if I had opt out and closed the account. Now, even if I wanted to, I can't opt out. There are several things wrong with this picture.
1. How can I opt out of something I am not even aware of (I didn't find out till late July).
2. Closing the account while there is a balance will reflect VERY negatively on your credit report because the credit bureau will not care if you close the account or the credit company did, it's closed with an existing balance therefore it'll adversely affect you.
3. I never heard of a company that won't allow you to keep a lower rate but not use the card but forces you to close the account. But what does it matter, I don't even have that option at this point.
Fed up with their BS, I got off the phone and immediate filed a BBB complaint. I will pursue every median I can, FDIC, FTC, Consumerist, Digg, online and offline media, whatever it takes for them to fix this BS they try to rub on other people. I highly hope that you guys will do the same if you're reading this.
If this is how Advanta treats their good customers who pay on time and had excellent credit, I don't even want to know what they do to the people that have bad credit.
Comments
Comments (18)
Thomas P. Costello - Independent Director and Chairman of Audit Committee 