1. Luckily for me, I am going to payoff this card by using an offer I got from another company to consolidate cards for 5.9%.
2. Contact your attorney general. Mine is Dick Blumenthal.
3. File a complaint with the Federal Trade commission. You can file a report over the internet.
4. Contact the Better Business Bureau. You can also file a complaint over the internet.
5. I also sent copies of my complaints to the Attorney General along with copies of the FTC and BBB complaints. I also made copies of complaints I obtained from this site.
6. Write a letter to the President of Providian and tell him what a low life he is.
Submitted: Sunday, December 28, 2003
Posted: Sunday, December 28, 2003
Travis
Sioux Falls
U.S.A.
I worked as a telemarketer for Visa and Providian for a few days several years back. After the computer dialed the phone #, we would go into our pitch, reading verbatim from a computer screen. In the course of these few days, I noticed that we were telling people that if they accepted a Providian card, that the interest rate would stay at 9.9%, provided that they pay their monthly dues on time. Plain and simple, no catches.
From the phone calls from irate customers, I was beginning to realize that people's interest rates were getting bumped up to 23.9% after 3 months, regardless of them paying on time or not. (Those calls were re-directed to customer service). I asked one of the team leaders if we were outright lying to these people when we told them that their interest rates wouldn't go up if they paid on time. "Yup," she replied, and she turned around and walked away. I quit that day.
This is how they operate. This place employed about 45 people, about 35 of whom manned the phone headsets. It was normal for each of these phone operators to get as little as 2 or 3 sales in a week. 5 or more sales was exceptional! Crunch the numbers, people. To pay full-time wages to this many people with sales that sparse, while still having to kick up some of that $$$ to the head office means having to squeeze as much as they can out of every sale.
Now you know why your interest rate got bumped up. How to fix? Sorry, they didn't teach us that. But I hope this gives everyone insight as to how these guys operate.
P.S. Telemarketers still bothering you? Tell them you died. Anything else, other than the "no call list", will put your name right back into the computer for another call later.