Advanta bank review: Excess interest charged 62

DO NOT GET THIS CARD! Same story as everyone else- no late payments, always early, and for no reason rate went from 7.99% as agreed to aver 20% in ONE month with NO warning! When my monthly payment tripled I looked and found out what they had done. THIS IS A SCAM PEOPLE!

I hate this company! They did the same to our small business a couple of years ago after they continually increased our credit limit. After several attempts to lower my rate from 30%, they finally brought it down to 19.99. I've been trying to pay off my balance with timely monthly payments which are way over the minimal. Was late by 2-3 days with 2 payments in the last 12 months and now my APR went from 19.99 to 29.99. Contacted Advanta - no help! I'm already signed up for a class action suit again them but I want to know if I should continue to pay off the balance.

when there are enough people with similar complaints you can contact each other and file a class action lawsuit against these companies, which is much more powerful than one individual...or something similar to a governmental agency or congressman/senator who is on a committee of oversight on the industry you are complaining about.

How do I get involved with a class action suit against Advanta? Absolutely the worst, most dishonest, rudest financial institution I have ever dealt with as a small business owner.

After years of paying on time, a good FICO score and NO delinquencies on my credit report, Advanta sent a notice that unless I write them a letter and stop using my card, the rate will increase to 32.69% PLUS LIBOR rate or 2.4%, whichever is GREATER! This means a new MINIMUM RATE of 35% or MORE! Let's all write our congressmen to STOP this madness. These rates are as bad as the 'vig' a loan shark would charge!

Same with my $26, 500 credit limit! Im in for anything to show Advanta is BAD!

You actually are talking to people from India. Late last fall of 2008, Advanta laid off all it's 300 or so U.S. customer service employees and outsourced all of it to India.

I'm right there with you! I was furious to find out this morning from an article, and not from Advanta. The lack of respect and consideration by the company not notifying it's customers is inexcusable. They are the lowest of the low, and I long to see the day that the company will no longer exist at all. These so called "execs" are too brainless to be able to separate the good accounts from the bad, and continue to make a profit on the good ones! (That was 80%, mind you!) Well, my card with a limit of 35, 000 and my husbands, with a limit of 50, 000 (2 separate businesses) will no longer generate any business for them. We have good credit and will be fine. Within 15 minutes of finding out, I lined up a rewards card with 9, 000 limit. I feel for those who will not be as fortunate. This is one of those moments when I am sooo tempted to take my last check to them and use it as a pooper scooper before mailing it in! Hey, maybe ...

I too have been jacked. Called the help number and ended up speaking to some dude in India reading off a script. After much one sided discussion on my end he gave me an address to write to which I am in the process of doing.
Advanta shut down future charges in the spring with 2 weeks notice. Had been getting emails as reminders payments where do but that stop and I forgot a payment and was late on another at the end of the year. No warning. Prior to shutting off accounts they kept sending "convenience checks" which I shredded. Still I have about a 9k balance and the interest rate is like a mortgage. If there is a class action sign me up.

I didn't catch it in time and never received the opt out letter. I can understand being late on a payment to justify the increase but when you are a conscious consumer paying on time and more that the minimum amount it's just WRONG! Count me in class action lawsuit effort.

After offering a 9.9 % credit card and using it for my business, never late, always paid twice the min payment they doubled my rate. You can not get an answer from anyone when you call. Every one sounds like they are in India and uses American sounding names like John and Neal and Mary.

I had to leave town due to my father-in-laws illness, and missed a payment because my wife and I were so involved with the situation. As it turned out, my father-in-law passed away after a 10 days in hospice care. I returned home the day after the funeral and got a message on my answering machine about the miss payment. When I contacted Advanta, they informed me the raised my interest rate from 7.99% to 29.99%, even though I never missed a payment in the three years I had the account. The only way for them to lower the interest rate was for me to pay $2178.00. No matter who I talked to, they did not care. I am at a lost how a company can be so mean to someone who had to deal with so much and took immediate action to resolve the situation, especially since I have an outstanding payment record with Advanta.

I have had my Advanta card for about 10 years. Never missed a payment, excellent FICO, excellent credit. Went to make my end of August payment and found they jacked mhy interest rate from 10.05% to 30.05%. Claimed they sent an opt out letter. Never received it! Payment went up by 3 times and interest up by 5 times! Filed a complaint with the BBB and closed my account. Fortunately got back the excess interest. I am now working with an attorney, Alan Finkel, in Commack, NY to try and file a class action lawsuit against Advanta. I have seen over 200 victims of this same thing. 2 lawsuits have been filed and won already against Advanta in Philadelphia. If you have been ripped off in the same way, please contact me at dec458@msn.com to join our class action lawsuit effort.

Just when you thought Bernard Madoff was the biggest crook in the financial industry, watch out for these guys. Advanta teaser credit card rates WILL end up at 2-3 times the national average credit card rate! These people's GREED is amazing. Advanta teaser credit card rates end up at 2-3 times the national average credit card rate! Just have a bad month or 2 and late once (in other words just have a short term job or health problem) and without notice ADVANTA will pop the rate they charge you on your credit card balance to over 35%! …, How’s that for fair lending practices?!

Their cost of money, Federal Funds Rate ( the interest rate the banks like ADVANTA Get their money has never been lower (under 1%), yet they WILL penalize a long and well established small business owner with over 35% credit card interest…these ADVANTA people are like the greedy high school bullies… they kick you when you’re down.

To those of us who own a small business in this economy it has been a bitter sweet American dream. Advanta Credit Cards has not been a good partner since its sky rocketing interest rate shot up. The opportunity to use the credit card to our advantage was taken away when they froze their customer accounts. All we can do is struggle to pay their high rate interest because there is no one who cares about the people who are trying to keep up with their black mail payments. I have tried to talk to them & it is useless. I have made the payments on time & in excess of the amount due for years. I just do not understand why we have to pay for their bad decesions.

My office and myself have been in email contact with Advanta about the outrageous rate increase in our company credit card. I have written by mail the V.P. Brenden in Salt Lake City. No response to date. No phone call and in his first letter he stated he wasnt able to contact me at a phone number I have had for 18 yrs. We have had our business card for approximately 10 years. We managed to always pay on time, with more than the minimum due. Our rates have gone from 7.99 per cent to 27.99 percent. One payment was made one day late due to a log on problem my wife encountered. You also said your reason was due to change in usesage. However, you were not specific with what that meant. This is absurd. I demand that my rate be returned to the previous rate and payments we made since the increase be recalculated and credited against the principle.

My wife established this account to help her with her small business. Note the word SMALL business. She has had the account in excess of a year. She has been managing her business well and has not used the credit card over the last 5 months. Yesterday (7/21/2008) she gets a letter advising her that the account has be closed due to ...get this...lack of activity! So you run a SMALL business well and do not live off the credit and the account gets closed! No wonder this economy is in the tank, there is nobody at home!

DO NOT USE ADVANTA BANK FOR ANYTHING. I will get on every blog site, website, e-mail campaign, etc. to get this point across. Enough is enough!

they are charging a default rate at 36.31% on my account which have been making my payments on time for over five years its a
shame nobody with credentials will stop this bank from unfair lending practices i guess the banks must have a secret power in
the about to come new world order where the elite rich will dominate and even exterminate the population as they see fit. Thats
why nobody could touch them because our system is corrupt and we are going through a change of order.

Discovered yesterday that our percentage rate has been jacked up to 32% and we have been paying this rate now for over a year. I contacted the BBB and discovered they have many complaints against them. The company customer representatives are obviously outsourced to India--and have horrible customer service skills. Why are they allowed to do this when they are no longer in business?

I am a small business owner who was also a victim of Advanta. I am working with a group of individuals and a lawyer in New York in setting up a class action lawsuit against Advanta for unethical business practices. If you like to join our ranks, please contact me at:

ckblack@redowlpublications.com

Cary

Advanta card raised my rate from 10.99% to 30.00% without warning. I called to find out why.
They had no reason. My account is current and always paid ahead of schedule. This is scamming
and they should be investigated for this practice.
This must be illegal.

Advanta is very professional. They are thieves, but they are very proficient and well organized. They will sign you up for a credit card, but if you ever show signs that you can't pay off a balance (such as by making payments near the minimum) they will jack the rates to 36% or more, figuring you won't be able to pay them off.

Never go near them. They are radioactive. They will drive you into bankruptcy and enjoy the process.