Advanta Bank Corp. Bait and Switch from 7.99% FIXED APR to 30.39% APR with no cause Salt Lake City Utah

I am in the same boat as you. However, I read the mailer and sent them the opt out letter which closes the account but allows me to retain the 7.99% rate for the life of the balance.

Advanta never issued credit cards to people with bad credit in the first place. Advanta Corp. issues business purpose credit cards to small businesses and business professionals in the United States. You had to have decent credit to get the card offer in the first place and stellar credit to receive the lowest 7.99% rate. If you had had iffy credit your rate would have been 19.99% from the onset.

This is the new Advanta business plan: GREED UNLIMITED!

This is how it went for me. About three months ago I got a letter RAISING my credit limit several thousand dollars (now, who does that for "bad" customers?) Advanta invited me to get deep into debt with it because it knew what it was going to do when my card expired next month.

Late last week I got the mailer with the proposed changes in APR. I immediately sent the opt out letter, Priority Mail, Delivery Confirmation so I could prove Advanta got the letter before the "trigger" date of Sept. 2, 2008. Since I no longer trust Advanta, I felt it best to cover myself in as many ways as possible. I had about ten days (not ten business days, ten actual days) to write the letter and have the opt out letter back in their office in Salt Lake City. Not much time, huh? This closed the account but allowed me to retain the 7.99% interest rate.

Yesterday I got my new card. I shredded it immediately and will never have another Advanta Business card.

The customer reps do read from a script and do all in their power to make you feel like it is YOUR fault. It's not. They certainly are not going to just tell you that Advanta made bad business decisions (probably something to do with mortgage backed securities) and now wants you to pay for their bad judgment. This has nothing to do with anyone's credit rating; it is an across-the-board rate hike for everyone that seems to come around when cards expire without regard to credit reports. My credit is better than it was when I got the card because I have paid off my mortgage since then and all other credit balances have decreased as well. I am not buying this line of crapola from them; it is pure greed on their part.

If you are like me you are getting double handfuls of "0% for one year" offers weekly. (Yeah, B of A, Citi, U.S. Bank, Chase and all the rest like to send really good offers to people with bad credit, too, huh?) Transfer your Advanta balance to one of these, make sure that you pay it off before the year is up and then NO ONE makes interest on your sweat. Thumb your nose at the whole bunch of them.

And make sure that you read EVERYTHING from any credit card company thoroughly when you receive it no matter how insignificant it may seem. (The mailer I got was a mass-printed flyer and not anything directed specifically to me needing immediate attention. It did not have "IMPORTANT" or any other defining words on it.). This is going on industry wide (because they were all stupid enough to invest in MBS) and they are all looking for someone else to bail them out. APRs will be being raised and if you are not vigilant this may happen again with another card.

I keep every single thing I have for credit cards, down to copies of my original applications. I date everything I get from them when I receive it as there never seem to be any dates printed on the mailings themselves or the envelopes. Each card has its own file with all this junk in it and I can produce it all if necssary in less than two minutes. I have never trusted credit card companies and I keep files accordingly.

Be alert. Be proactive. Don't wind up paying for other's mistakes. Good luck; I hope Advanta gets sued by several AGs from several states before it is all over!

I am in the same boat as you. However, I read the mailer and sent them the opt out letter which closes the account but allows me to retain the 7.99% rate for the life of the balance.

Advanta never issued credit cards to people with bad credit in the first place. Advanta Corp. issues business purpose credit cards to small businesses and business professionals in the United States. You had to have decent credit to get the card offer in the first place and stellar credit to receive the lowest 7.99% rate. If you had had iffy credit your rate would have been 19.99% from the onset.

This is the new Advanta business plan: GREED UNLIMITED!

This is how it went for me. About three months ago I got a letter RAISING my credit limit several thousand dollars (now, who does that for "bad" customers?) Advanta invited me to get deep into debt with it because it knew what it was going to do when my card expired next month.

Late last week I got the mailer with the proposed changes in APR. I immediately sent the opt out letter, Priority Mail, Delivery Confirmation so I could prove Advanta got the letter before the "trigger" date of Sept. 2, 2008. Since I no longer trust Advanta, I felt it best to cover myself in as many ways as possible. I had about ten days (not ten business days, ten actual days) to write the letter and have the opt out letter back in their office in Salt Lake City. Not much time, huh? This closed the account but allowed me to retain the 7.99% interest rate.

Yesterday I got my new card. I shredded it immediately and will never have another Advanta Business card.

The customer reps do read from a script and do all in their power to make you feel like it is YOUR fault. It's not. They certainly are not going to just tell you that Advanta made bad business decisions (probably something to do with mortgage backed securities) and now wants you to pay for their bad judgment. This has nothing to do with anyone's credit rating; it is an across-the-board rate hike for everyone that seems to come around when cards expire without regard to credit reports. My credit is better than it was when I got the card because I have paid off my mortgage since then and all other credit balances have decreased as well. I am not buying this line of crapola from them; it is pure greed on their part.

If you are like me you are getting double handfuls of "0% for one year" offers weekly. (Yeah, B of A, Citi, U.S. Bank, Chase and all the rest like to send really good offers to people with bad credit, too, huh?) Transfer your Advanta balance to one of these, make sure that you pay it off before the year is up and then NO ONE makes interest on your sweat. Thumb your nose at the whole bunch of them.

And make sure that you read EVERYTHING from any credit card company thoroughly when you receive it no matter how insignificant it may seem. (The mailer I got was a mass-printed flyer and not anything directed specifically to me needing immediate attention. It did not have "IMPORTANT" or any other defining words on it.). This is going on industry wide (because they were all stupid enough to invest in MBS) and they are all looking for someone else to bail them out. APRs will be being raised and if you are not vigilant this may happen again with another card.

I keep every single thing I have for credit cards, down to copies of my original applications. I date everything I get from them when I receive it as there never seem to be any dates printed on the mailings themselves or the envelopes. Each card has its own file with all this junk in it and I can produce it all if necssary in less than two minutes. I have never trusted credit card companies and I keep files accordingly.

Be alert. Be proactive. Don't wind up paying for other's mistakes. Good luck; I hope Advanta gets sued by several AGs from several states before it is all over!