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     | Thursday, June 29, 2000 - 09:42 am  From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A16195-2000Jun28.html "We found that Providian engaged in a variety of unfair and deceptive practices that enriched the bank while harming literally hundreds of thousands of its customers," said U.S. Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke Jr. "This settlement provides for restitution for customers of Providian nationwide who were harmed by the bank's practices." THIS is the most important part: "Under the settlement, Providian did not admit or deny wrongdoing but agreed to end certain sales and marketing practices ...." Those bastards NEVER go to jail, they can steal and lie and defraud consumers as long as they want. They don't even take their license away! Why can't I go rob the bank and when I get caught, I'll just agree to give the money back and I promise not to rob the bank again? What happened to EQUAL RIGHTS?
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| | Thursday, June 29, 2000 - 09:56 am http://www.cslnet.ctstateu.edu/attygenl/mainlinks/linkindex12.htm This is the link to the Connecticut Attorney General's Office Press Release June 19, 2000 Excerpt: "The agreement by the State and Providian Financial Corporation to enter into a stipulated judgment filed in State Superior Court contains the following provisions: 1. Providian agrees to an injuction that requires Providian to: Only issue a credit card or enroll a consumer in any of their credit card-related services (credit protection plan, buyers' advantage plan) after obtaining a clear, unambigous request from the consumer for the card or service. Give consumers written notice of their right to cancel any of their credit card related products. Credit consumer payments on the date received and no assessment of late charges or finance charges for timely payments. Comply with the federal regulations regarding investigating and correcting billing errors in a timely fashion and notify credit bureaus of the corrected information. Honor its 30-day money back guarantee by giving consumers full refunds upon receipt of timely cancellation requests. Clearly and conspicuously disclose all terms and conditions of any guarantee in its advertising, written solicitations, and telemarketing scripts. 2. Providian will devise a process, subject to review and approval by the Attorney General, to identify all consumers who may have been harmed by the practices covered in the injuction in order to: Provide direct mail notice to those consumers. Pay full and complete restitution. Restore the interest rate of any consumer whose rate increased as a result of an erroneous charge or fee. Notify all credit reporting agencies that received erroneous information and provide corrected information. 3. Providian will pay an additional $1.6 million to the State of Connecticut, which will include costs, attorneys fees, and any civil penalties. 4. Providian does not admit any wrongdoing in this matter." I just can't understand how Providian could have done all of the above, yet, they don't admit to any wrongdoing. It sends only ONE signal: Corporate can do WHATEVER they want, no CEO will ever go to jail for defrauding consumers.
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| | Saturday, July 22, 2000 - 05:27 am Providian is a huge scam...I had thier card and found thier fees and billing dates to be a scam. They're one of the marks on my credit. For one thing I paid them off and told them to cancel the account, then the next month they shoved a yearly fee on there and billed me. So I paid them again but was pissed and it was late. They then marked my credit for a 30 days. Eventually after 5 calls to get a total payoff I sent them a check for the correct amount I was told, and once again told them I wanted the card cancelled. Guess what? Next month new bill .02 balance. I said screw this.... Bam. next month $15 late payment, marked my credit. At the time I really didn't feel like chasing halfa**ed customer service. Anyways....sent them a check for .02. Last month, I found out they were still showing as unpaid on experian. Providian had been contacted TWICE saying it has been paid off. I wrote them a letter of dispute but they reviewed it and declined to update my credit. Whatever... Under no circumstances should ANYONE use thier service. I GAURENTEE you will not be able to cancel thier card and it's darn near impossible if you're busy to avoid fees...one time I went over 25 bucks my spending limit...like I know what my balance is any given second. They charged me a 25 or $35 fee. SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM
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| | Saturday, July 22, 2000 - 11:31 am Wow! Why don't you send a copy of your posting with your name and account # to the Connecticut Attorney General? You should get your money back as well as your good credit rating and compensation for your troubles.
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| | Saturday, July 22, 2000 - 01:48 pm Well what it was is providian failed to update experian. Apparently they did update the other two. I did get it as showing unpaid on experian corrected last month. You know..I might just follow your suggestion...I have to go back and look at checks and check the dates. I just know that they are fee riden...late charges aside for 29 bucks, Thier yearly fee was like 59 bucks. Over credit limit 25 bucks ...can you believe that? they don't deny the charge for a certain amount and I think they give you just enough room to hit you with that fee. Also when you send your payment, there is at or around a 48 hour grace period. This is what I think they were being investigated by the ftc as they were holding off posting to accounts supposedly. Providian can make up to $115 bucks one bill on you late + Over limit + yearly fee. http://www.ecommercetimes.com/news/articles/991109-2.shtml If you look on the back of thier statement, they also say that if this statement includes their membership fee, you have 30 days to close this account and it will be refunded. That was when I first called them to close it....but they didn't close it nor refund it. It was after that that I got my marks on my credit because I got sick of dealing with them after I sent in payoff of what the person told me on the phone....I even stressed look any fees you going to shove on there tell me now, I'm sick of dealing with you people. Go figure =) anyways...they stink, noone use them. Bad thing about charge cards, since they are so anal about ontime payment, they should also give you the option of making payments in advance. Credit cards is the ONLY industry which functions this way...if you make a car, bank, or house note, you can make several payments at a time. Which is why I currently don't want or carry credit cards as I get busy and like to pay several months at a time. But fees is where they make thier money.
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| | Saturday, July 22, 2000 - 02:02 pm Opps....actually I was wrong. Providan doesn't have anything on my credit except those late payments..all after I was contacting them and sending them checks trying to close the account and finanlly getting fed up. But the rest of the information concerning them is correct ;) One thing I've learned. If you talk to anyone concerning something like closing an account, getting a payoff for a certain date, get the name of who you talked to and make note of the date.
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| | Tuesday, July 25, 2000 - 05:38 am Had a Providian Visa for 2 years. Never late. Never over the limit. Never charged any excess fees. When I closed it, they refunded my annual fee. Looking at my credit report, it says "ACCOUNT CLOSED BY CONSUMER" and 'In Prior 24 months from date closed never late'. You must have gotten their standard 'bum rap' 
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| | Wednesday, July 26, 2000 - 04:11 pm I'm finding that FCNB isn't all they are cracked up to be either... I was within about $25 of mi limit, at which time they decided to hit me with a $30 fee for something (legit, it was supposed to happen at some point) and then charge me ANOTHER $30 as a late fee - the kicker is, they processed my payment the next day. Sigh.
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| | Thursday, July 27, 2000 - 10:30 am Talk about rediculous. I got an offer today to "Upgrade" my Providian "ARIA" VISA card from a $500 limit to a $1000 limit. The catch: There's a $99 "Finance Charge" assessed for the limit increase So, basically, they get you coming and going, and they've just insured themselves for at least 20% if I bail on paying them. What a joke.
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