Complain about a product or service

Providian Credit Repair

Providian • Advance Fees • Credit Repair • Destinations Unlimited • Disputed Charges • Interest Rates • Late Posting • Late Refunds • Late Statements • Promotional Rates • Credit Protection • Unauthorized Balance Transfers --- News • WaMu Buys Providian • $300 Million Providian Settlement • Providian Chairman Out, Stock Tanks • Providian Settles Class-Action Suits

Keith of Chico, CA writes:
I received an offer for a pre-approved visa card through Providian by mail to repair my credit. It said that all I needed to do was to send in an $89 one-time processing fee, and I was guaranteed a Visa card. I sent in a money order, and then later on I received a letter requesting that I verify my personal information again because they could not contact me by phone. The information they had was correct, and I indicated so in their reply letter. Then later on, I received another letter saying the exact same thing. I sent the reply letter back again indicating that my personal information was correct. Then later on, I received the same letter again, and I replied back again.

At the end of each letter it states that if they do not hear back from me by a certain date they will consider the matter closed. I have never received any message from Providian on my answering machine. If they actually called, they must have hung up every time the machine picked up. They also had my work number, but I have never received any calls or messages from Providian there either.

Well I feel like they just took my money and they are going to keep sending me letters until I give up.

"D" of Silverdale, WA:
In June, 1999, I received an application for Providian's card program. Since my husband and I had recently been through a bankruptcy, and we wanted to reestablish out credit, I applied for the card over the phone. I paid the $49 processing fee over the phone, and received the card within a few weeks, but for some reason, the payment wasn't applied until almost a month later, leaving me with an unusable card.

But that wasn't the big problem -- in November 1999, I had just opened my own checking account, seperate from my husband, and mailed the payment from the account. Little did I realize that I forgot to call the bank and have the funds transferred from the joint account to my account, until I received the letter from my bank informing me of the returned check.

Ok, so that was my faoult, and I called Providian to let them know the check had been returned (their system did not yet show the status of the check- I was told to call back a few days later). I called a few days later, and was told there was no problem, they would redeposit the check within 10 days, as long as it cleared the second time i was fine. A few days later, a gentleman from Providian called, to let me know that not only did they now show that I owed them a returned check fee of $29, I was also over the limit (another $29), and the payment was late (yep, $29). So this now put me a total of over $70 over the limit. And the fees are all what threw it over the limit.

Ok, I explained what happened, and asked if any of the fees could be waived, this once. The customer rep assured me they could, and advised me to call the service dept the next day. My family was preparing to move, so I forgot that day, and another collections person called that night. I laughingly told her that I had already talked to someone, and explained the situation again. I told her I forgot to call, since I didn't want to pay the fees.

She became very angry, and yelled that I had to pay it. Well, since I had already been told I could call and request the waiver, I said I might not have to. She hung up before we could each elaborate as to what we each were talking about. The next night, someone called again, and again that Saturday, though each of these ladies were much nicer, when I again explained what was happening, and what I wanted to do. I called the following Monday or Tuesday, and found I could not access the automated payment info. No big deal, I only wanted to see if the check had been applied (since it had now cleared my bank), and to talk to someone about removing the fees.

When I did get a rep on the phone, I was informed that my account had been closed. Not just frozen, closed! When I asked why, no one really had an answer. Since I am trying to rebuild my credit, having this account closed by them appearing on my credit report would be really bad, exactly the opposite of what I was trying to do.

They are right up there with loan sharks and pay-day loan advancers.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.