My wife and I were recovering from a bankruptcy in 1996 when we applied to Providian for a card and were grateful to have credit and rejoin the world again after 4 years without!
We started with a $500 limit At 18%, and over the 6 years of perfect payments history we had established a high credit limit of $5000. and of course the bankruptcy and money problems were far behind us, and we were able to purchase property again and greatly improve our prospects for the future.
Our balances had been paid down several times from $2000-3000 and of course that is why we received credit limit increases reflecting accurately our ability to pay. My wife and I combined averaged between $75,000-90,000 a year for the last 5 years.
When in May we paid our balance off with $4000. I requested that Providian National Bank offer us a better more competitive rate in line with our history.
We were absolutely positively stunned and nauseated to receive a letter from Providian RAISING our interest rate on the card to YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BELIEVE IT --- 30%.
Now, Today, September 9, 2002, we have received a bizarre letter from Eileen Stack, Executive Vice President of Providian notifying us that she has closed our account????? But of course she would still like to be paid.
She says the decision is due to derogatory info on our credit reports which is damn near impossible, since we just bought another rental property and my wifes PT Cruiser. What the hell?
My wife and I think that the account closures are probably taking place all over the country on accounts like ours that were targeted for discriminatory treatment by raising the rates of white people from Idaho.
The subsequent discovery of this program of race based discrimination by righteous Vice presidents of Providian is resulting in all these cancellations of ridiculous illegal and usurus interest rates for many consumers.
Are they all white americans? Or residents of zip codes in primarily white areas of the US? Did they all receive interest rate increases immediately following a credit card payoff of a high balance?
WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH PROVIDIAN CORRUPT NATIONAL BANK??
Can anyone possibly explain their actions in our case in some logical banking rationale??
Jerry
Post Falls, Idaho