Advanta More than DOUBLED Finance Charge and refuses to honor letter stating that the charges will not affect my account! Salt Lake City Utah

On 03/13/2008 I received my Advanta bill and noticed that the interest rate had been raised from 7.9% to 18.99%. I called Advanta and they claimed a letter was sent out that stated that this change was happening-I have no such letter. The rep then told me that I could fax a letter to state that I wanted to "opt-out" of this change and that my account would be closed and that I woulld be reset back to the 7.9%. I faxed over the letter and requested a new March bill with the correct finance charge.

On 03/20/2008 I called because I had yet received a new bill, the rep then told me that the statement was locked in and couldn't be changed. My first issue was that the last time my card was used was 01/04/2008, I used this card under the previous terms of 7.9%, this rate increase supposedly took effect on 03/03/2008 - so basically they are changing my interest rate on purchases that were made under my previous terms. After speaking with them that day, I went home and had a letter from advanta that states verbatim " We have received your notice that you do not accept the Change in Terms effective March 03, 2008 on your Advanta Business Card account. We have closed your account, effective immediately, and it will be subject to its
previous terms and conditions, without any of the March 03, 2008 changes, until any balance is paid in full......" This to me CLEARLY says that the rate change will not affect my account at all because it states "without ANY of the March 03, 2008 changes". I called back and spoke to a rep, eventually I asked to speak to a supervisor and was transferred to "Corey". Who at first said that he could pull up the letter, then lied and said that his letter didn't say what my letter said - THEN I faxed it to him and he called me back saying that I misunderstood the letter and that it meant "as of the date of the letter". So I basically told him that he was not honoring the letter and that I had every intention of filing a formal complaint, and speaking with my attorney about this. The conversation ended.

Crystal
La Plata, Maryland
U.S.A.