Question
I'm in bed with First USA on two different 0% teasers, so it's not like I'm that picky, but...
...is Providian still known is that dirtiest, slimiest credit card issuer on the planet, or did they sort of clean themselves up after all of the bad press a couple of years ago?
I've always gotten lots of mailings from Providian and thrown them in the trash without reading the terms. Now they are getting aggressive with their own 0% teasers (for a full year) and I'm wondering if I should play ball. Even if they are Evil, their money is still green and it can still go to work for me.
Any recent pitfalls with these guys - particularly customer service or online service issues?
FWIW, the Providian teasers I'm getting are of both common flavors:
(1) Balance transfer only - totally free for a year.
(2) Cash advances allowed for 0%. Juice: $50 + min.fin.charge monthly.
I've gotten basic (not co-branded) Providian offers and (this latest one) an eBay-branded card with some sort of home-grown points that are used on eBay (I guess...). These guys are in my mailbox almost every day now.
Answer
Providian is still considered a sub prime lender with sub prime customer service
[This message has been edited by Rawhide (edited Nov 26, 2003).]
Answer
I haven't done business with them for more than a year. I live in Massachusetts, my Providian card is issued in New Hampshire and yet my payments would go to California. One late payment your 0% money is then 20% or more, not to mention late fees. So if you decide to take their 0% money, just be careful (i.e., prompt). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
Answer
Originally posted by dave99:
One late payment your 0% money is then 20% or more, not to mention late fees. So if you decide to take their 0% money, just be careful (i.e., prompt). http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
I have always assumed that this is the case for any 0% teaser for any big bank. i.e., You don't pay the minimum payment on time, they throw the book at you.
Answer
I agree but many banks don't take steps to greatly increase the chance that you'll be late. Some that come to mind: mailing your monthly statement several days after it's dated, a shortened period between the statement date and the payment due date, a delay in crediting your payment after it's received and being unwilling to forgive a couple of days lateness once as a "courtesy." Not all big banks play the game the same way.
By the way I'm not saying that Providian does any of the above, but they're the only credit card I have that requires your payment to travel so far to reach them.
[This message has been edited by dave99 (edited Nov 26, 2003).]
Answer
Okay - thanks for the heads-up. I am generally overly cautious on the payments for 0% money. I've noticed Citibank now takes up to 5 days to take the money from my account, so I have alerts in my calendaring tool to enter their payments a good 8-9 days in advance. If I take some 0% Providian money, I'll be overly careful until I know their website and processes inside and out.
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Update: I applied for a Providian card and just got one in the mail today. First impressions are not good: their website is buggy and leads to a lot of "404" errors. I will wait 24 hours or so and try again (maybe the 404 errors are because I just activated the card): if the site still doesn't work, I won't play ball.
From the look and feel of the website, it is easy to tell that Providian is definitely not nearly as quality-oriented as Citibank, Chase, or MBNA. It looks like their IT department is being run out of my basement or something.
Answer
I have used Providian since 1999 and haven't had any problems, I make my payments online and the website usually works without any problems. I used to mail the payments from California to the East Coast. Online, to do same day cost a extra 10-12.00 so I go in and pay it before the due date atleast by 3 days ahead of that time. When I had some fraud on the card, they immediatly corrected it. I have a Platinum 0% but what I found is my First Consumer interest rate was the same as the Providian card before the new intro rate. Good Luck, if you pay your bills you shouldn't have any true problems and besides, you can always cancel the card if you don't like there services.
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I had a friend who used to work for Providian. Employees were NOT ALLOWED to have Providian credit cards. THis strikes me as incredibly weird. Every company I've worked for wants employees to use their prodcts to help identify bugs, to understand the product, and experience the product the way a customer does. There were lots of other issues which she considered as indicative of Providian's lack of ethics so she left the company.
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Answer
Best advice is to use the Providian teaser rate and then give them the door. I had the Providian card . They conviently lost my payment and attempted to jack up the rate. I gave them the kiss off.
Their main focus according to recent WSJ article, is the mid market cards ,where fees are easily run up and more profitable for Providian. Beware!!!