Advanta Bank Corp. Platinum Business Card - Bait and Switch? You decide. Salt Lake City Utah

This is long but please people read the whole thing! There is a "smoking gun" toward the end showing that Advanta intended all along to rip us off!

Well, we sent the letter to Salt Lake City telling Advanta that we under no circumstances would accept their greedy 17% Variable Rate switch from our 7.9% Fixed Rate. We also sent them a copy of the Rip-Off report and gave them the opportunity to fix their "error". They closed our account with a balance of $9550 against our credit limit of $20,000. Not really a problem for us - we really don't care to cough up the cash to pay the balance off so we were just going to let it sit there and pay on it as we wanted at the 7.99% that they were locked into.

But then - get this - we had just opened the Federal Express Simply Cash Business Card (0% on purchases for a year and a no-fee balance transfer option at 7.9% fixed rate for the life of the balance). So I called them - even with our excellent credit and no debt and a 6-figure income last year the card AmEx sent us only had a $5k limit.

I called to tell them I wanted to transfer a $9550 balance and they said we couldn't because our limit wasn't high enough and even though their advert for the SimplyCash Card said we could transfer a balance any time we wanted, we would have to wait 60 days to ask for a credit line increase!

We spent an hour on the phone with them (actually a guy in "Sales" sitting at a desk in New Delhi, and a second guy from "Customer Service" who must have been sitting in the same boiler room) and they talked us into opening ANOTHER AmEx card "Blue for Business" and applying for the balance transfer at the same time. "This will be all you'll need to do and have a Really Fine Day Too! Hahaha when the "Blue For Business" card showed up, IT had a $5k credit limit and Advanta had never received a check or even an inquiry from AmEx on the balance! Now we're sitting here with TWO new Amex cards totalling $10k available, and "you'll have to wait 60 days to apply for a credit limit increase". UNBELIEVABLE!

Finally after getting two supervisors higher up, they agreed to combine the two lines into one card, the SimplyCash and cut the Blue For Business card up, for a 10K line but SAID they never promised us they would pay any balance off (they've "ordered" the recording of our call with the two Indian folks to see if there were "any improprieties" but what do you bet they can't find the tape?) Meantime, we told Amex never mind on the balance transfer, they don't deserve our interest payments for this 3 week hocus pocus majik carpet ride game. No thanks, we'll enjoy a year of 0% purchases and 1% to 5% cash back (they'll be paying us to use their card for our business for a year) and then if we have a balance just move it to another card....

Oh, the balance? One phone call to Bank of America Visa (one of our personal cards with a $25k limit and a $0 balance got us a balance transfer at 1.9% fixed and they lowered the fee from 3% to 2% for the transaction (turned out to be $178 but we'll save that in 3 months over Advanta at 7.9%). Stay with us, this gets even better.....

Bank of America suggested we call Advanta and ask them to waive any residual interest that accrues in the 3 days or so it takes for their check to get there, so they don't end up sending us another billing cycle statement for 4 bucks or something like that. BoA says they do that all the time on balance transfers. Take a guess on Advanta's answer? Hahahha...no way they're giving up that 4 bucks even if it costs them 20 bucks to process the payment! Talk about GREED!!!! not to mention pure fiscal stupidity! Actually, I hope the interest that accrues is more than 10 bucks so that we can minimum-pay them to death over the last dribble left in that account. It would be worth the 15 cents every month in interest just to make them process our payments forever.

Bottom line - if there ever was a classic Bait and Switch, this Advanta Platinum Business Card was it! Ok, the "smoking gun" we have that proves it. Back in October of last year, we changed the name of one of our companies. The Advanta card comes with your business name printed across the top.

We sent Advanta a name change notice. They issued a new card, but they had misspelled the new company name. Right away I sent them a letter telling them about the error, but we went through one billing cycle with the name misspelled on the card and on our statement. Next billing cycle everything was correct and continued correct. Then, in March, we get the tiny little piece of paper with the microscopic print telling us the great news of our new rip-off rate of 17% variable.

The notice has the same mis-spelling on it! That notice was obviously pre-printed NO LATER than October of 2007, almost surely with a big batch of notices they were going to send to anyone else they felt like scamming! Of course, when we first called Advanta to ask why they were backing out on their 7.99% fixed rate, all they would say is "obviously there is new information about your qualifications that has led to the rate change". Hahahaha! Our credit rating and FICO scores IMPROVED between 18 months ago when we opened the account and March of this year. We have less debt, more income, and no other credit card balances!

That pre-printed notice was between 5 and 6 months old when they sent it to us, as evidenced by the mis-spelled business name! These thieves were executing a well-planned Bait and Switch game - they lured us in with a nice rate, printed up their rape 'em notice, then waited until we had a blanace on our account that they figured would stop us from closing the account! Sorry Advanta, but we don't play those games....and you need to be slapped with a class action lawsuit for engineering this scam...and lest any of you think this was an isolated incident, read the other guy's report in this thread - he got the same deal!

We're done with Advanta, permanently and forever. I don't have alot of time to spend on a lawsuit, but there sure should be one filed! I would be happy to provide copies of the post-dated notice, copies of all of our statements, and anything else any class-action guy would like to put together a case against these jokers over at Advanta Bank Corp. Just contact me through this website.

Oh, and another caution - watch out for American Express, people! They're advertising up a storm about their great small business cards, but all you're going to get is a college-kid starter card like we did..twice in a row! But that's OK - we get free purchases card for a year that pays us cash back to use it!

Apparently even highly-rated credit cards and their banks engage in bait & switch and predatory lending. After 18 months with Advanta, that's what I now believe. See if you agree after reading this one. Dont take my word for it, just read the facts and draw your own conclusion:



PROFILE: Married couple (26 years) in mid-50s, kids through college and married. Wife has 30-yr high-paying fulltime career, works because she wants to. I own a small LLC with 2 divisions building and marketing custom crafted enthusiast items ($5K-20K per sale) primarily to wealthy people including TV and sports figures. Revenues doubled every year since 2002, 2008 already has surpassed 2007 sales after only 2 months. We own the shop and offices, overhead almost nil.



CREDIT RATING: Long near perfect, zero late/missed payments, all FICO scores a hair under 800. Debt a mortgage under $1K/mo with a perfect payment history, wife's 2nd year car lease payment less than $500, also perfect payment history - thats IT. We arent wealthy, but bill paying nights dont include any nail-biting.



CREDIT CARDS: (3) #1 Visa Platinum 8.99% fixed $40K limit w/zero balance (personal use), #2 Visa Platinum 7.99% fixed $25K limit w/zero balance (personal use). After a huge surge in sales, in August 2006 we applied for and received #3, the Advanta Platinum Business M/C 7.99% fixed with a $20K limit. We carry our ONLY balance on this card, from $2-15K varying monthly, purchasing materials and supplies for our business. Every payment EARLIER than on time, NEVER over limit, made only ONE minimum payment out of the 18, remainder ranging from $200 to $3400 OVER the minimum, last months over $5000



We could write a personal check today to pay the card off, but we choose to use Advantas cash to even out our business cash flow, and we gladly pay them their 7.99% (still high with rates as low as they are today) for this privilege. Our sales are all 2-3 month projects, with one lump payment by our clients at the end of the job. Consequently the account balance ranges based on the number of projects in-house at any given time, but it has NEVER exceeded $17K against a $20K line.



THE HONEYMOON: Back in August 2006 it was time to separate our Schedule C business/personal expenses to make accounting easier. We shopped business cards, and we simply DON'T DO variable rate cards. We questioned Advanta sales people and made it clear that we were NOT interested in any card that would start as a low fixed rate and then magically change to a high-rate variable (todays treasure, tomorrows rip-off) and were ASSURED that this card was different and as long as we paid our bills on time, we'd have what we wanted!



First 6 months was great Advanta does a beautiful job with their business statements, most of their customer service people speak English, and the online bill paying was free and a snap to use. We especially liked the cash back checks (4 in all, at least $50 each) In short, we were very happy with Advanta and we were sure they were happy with us. We paid all our bills on time, didnt even approach the credit limit, used the card exclusively for business purchases, always paid more than the minimum payment. We didn't even switch cards when we found the AmEx SimplyCash Card with 0% purchases for 12 months and 6.5% fixed after that nice but not worth the trouble of changing cards. THEN...



LAST WEEKS ENVELOPE: One of about 18 so far from Advanta stuffed with those exorbitant-rate pre-printed checks. They want us to use these to let them charge us 3% plus 27% interest or whatever. Those all immediately go through the shredder. Hidden among these checks, a miniature piece of paper that we needed a magnifying glass to read expounding on the virtues of the checks and oh by the way, read the microscopic print on the back side for important account information. The print is so small we could barely read it. After 16 months of perfect payments, abiding explicitly to the original terms we all agreed to, Advanta says they're changing our rate from fixed to variable, at an exorbitant 16.99%! And, the only option I have to avoid this ridiculous charge is to close the account.



I immediately called the Customer Service number, only to be told that there was OBVIOUSLY some problem with the way we are handling our account. I asked her to tell me what that was, and she said theres no way to know exactly what the problem is, which I take to mean this sudden change has nothing to do at all with our credit-worthiness.



GIVE ME A BREAK!!: If all this werent so sad, it would almost be funny. Humbly speaking, I'd have to say my wife and I come pretty close to the desirable customer for Advanta we arent in debt up to our eyeballs, we can and DO easily pay our bills on time, every time, we care about and work hard to maintain a pretty darned good credit rating, and we even say nice things about the way they have performed for us so far.



We carry a small balance (less than 18% of our total available credit) that results in them receiving thousands in interest annually. All we ever wanted, asked for, applied for, and were promised, was a credit card that we could use for our business that charged a fair interest rate base on our means and our record of payment. There is no free lunch, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with Advanta or anyone else that lets us use their money making a reasonable and ethical profit for doing so I know Im in business to make money. But I cannot believe what Advanta and these other obese lending institutions are attempting to cram down the publics throat! This isnt banking, this is pure, unadulterated greed, and apparently nobody is safe, regardless of how faithfully they pay their bills, how good their credit rating is, or how many FICO points they tally!



OK, THE QUESTION: Is Advanta Bank Corp. playing fair, or have they also jumped on the bait and switch, max the profit, screw the customer, loan-sharking bandwagon? After our experience and reading of the same kind from other business people who have tried this card, its about the only conclusion I can arrive at. What do you think?



Obviously, we are sending the letter to Advanta saying we do not accept these terms, but it angers me no end that we are being forced to do that. Advanta marketed that card to us furiously, telling us how straightforward and honest they are. We held up our end of the bargain explicitly. Simply put, Advanta has wasted us as a customer, and along the way wasted hours of our time and inconvenience in having to switch just 18 months later.



We have a good income with no debt other than our mortgage and a car lease (which technically is not even a debt, as the lease is paid in advance). We have 3 credit cards with available credit totalling $84,500, and continually carry a zero blance on two of them. We have never made a late payment or exceeded our credit limit. If we dont qualify for their 7.99% fixed rate, who does? (Interestingly enough, on the same day we received the notice from Advanta, we received a notice from our insurance agent that our homeowners insurance and our car insurance rates were being lowered by 23% and 27% respectfully due to our excellent credit rating and perfect payment history).



Quite obviously to us, this entire Platinum Business Card product line was engineered all along as a bait and switch intended to lure small businesses into comfortably incurring balances on the card and then simply switching the terms to ridiculous rates at a pre-determined point to maximize their profits. Actually, we have in our possession one additional very critical piece of written, black and white evidence, mailed to us by the culprit themselves, that proves Advanta's bait and switch intent beyond a shadow of a doubt to us but in fairness, because I really like their service capabilities, were going to reserve that until we see the result of my letter going in the mail to Salt Lake City Monday morning.



Should they realize their error and choose to continue our business relationship in the honest manner they did before The Envelope showed up in my mailbox, that piece of damning evidence will probably see my shredder. If not, well, good-bye Advanta 7.99%, hello AmEx 0%/6.5%, and Ill reveal the nature of the evidence and offer copies to the class-action people as a second installment to this report.



Wise up Advanta!! EARN your interest money by providing good service at a reasonable rate, that's how you can become the number one card. Leave the predatory lending, dirty dealing, slimy hidden surprises, and customer abuse to the other low-life companies out there. You say you're better than that... start acting like it. You seem to forget that customers have long memories. Once were gone, were gone for good!



Thank you! to Rip-off Report and all who read this. We dont have to lay down and take this abuse from the wolf pack that the credit card industry has become.

Coincidence? I think not! OUr business opened an account with Advanta January of 2007. 20K limit and introductory rate of 3.99 for one year (then to increase to 8%, we never maxed out the card and maintained a balance less than 10% of the limit, ALWAYS paid early via online banking and were extremely pleased with Advanta.



July come our statement raising the rate to 16+. Thinking there was a mistake we called and got no where with no justification or reason given. I paid off the balance, closed the account and went to Amex. BTW, personal FICO is around 750.

Coincidence? I think not! OUr business opened an account with Advanta January of 2007. 20K limit and introductory rate of 3.99 for one year (then to increase to 8%, we never maxed out the card and maintained a balance less than 10% of the limit, ALWAYS paid early via online banking and were extremely pleased with Advanta.



July come our statement raising the rate to 16+. Thinking there was a mistake we called and got no where with no justification or reason given. I paid off the balance, closed the account and went to Amex. BTW, personal FICO is around 750.

Coincidence? I think not! OUr business opened an account with Advanta January of 2007. 20K limit and introductory rate of 3.99 for one year (then to increase to 8%, we never maxed out the card and maintained a balance less than 10% of the limit, ALWAYS paid early via online banking and were extremely pleased with Advanta.



July come our statement raising the rate to 16+. Thinking there was a mistake we called and got no where with no justification or reason given. I paid off the balance, closed the account and went to Amex. BTW, personal FICO is around 750.