Advanta APR increase - is this legal???

[Anonymous]

I have had Advanta card for almost 3 yrs now - since April '07. Initially used it for balance xfer - 2.99% for life.  That was great, still at that rate.

My initial PURCHASES APR was 9.99% (Nominal APR).

In 02/08 statement, Nominal APR doubled to 18.74%! I had NO late payments or credit negatives!

I called and asked why, they said it was just due to fed rate increasing. But they agreed to lower it down to 13.99%.

By November it was back up to 16.18%!   This seems so arbitrary. How do they get away with this? I called today to ask what was going on and request another rate reduction, but they said they would consider it in another 90 days if my payments remain on time and my credit rating does not drop. But I have not had any late payments on ANY cards!

Is there anything I can do to challenge this rate hike???

[Anonymous]

Sorry to hear they  hiked the rate, but yours sounds pretty good compared to some who are reporting 30+%

You can call, but not sure what good it will do.

[score_building]

sorry for the raw deal, perhaps one of the best damage control 'strategies' for now may be to pif if possible and sd the card making a small purchase monthly or so and pif.  it pays to have back ups when this happens, if you do it is time to put one into play, if it happens again (and with banks still in upheaval it may.  i sure hope not though) rinse and repeat.  yer gonna wash misbehavin' banks right outta yer hair! and to echo steph37, there are several recent reports of Advanta rj some into the 30+ and this without a blush   so dangerous!

[Anonymous]

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@score_building wrote:
sorry for the raw deal, perhaps one of the best damage control 'strategies' for now may be to pif if possible and sd the card making a small purchase monthly or so and pif.  it pays to have back ups when this happens, if you do it is time to put one into play, if it happens again (and with banks still in upheaval it may.  i sure hope not though) rinse and repeat.  yer gonna wash misbehavin' banks right outta yer hair! and to echo steph37, there are several recent reports of Advanta rj some into the 30+ and this without a blush   so dangerous!

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Yes, and one of those 30+ has fico's in the 800's and has been a customer forever it seems. I thought it was awful they would do that.

[Creditaddict]

I just posted on this a couple weeks ago when I got a nice letter from Advanta... I also took advantage of a 2.99 for life of balance, so that balance is still safe HOWEVER unlike what I normally do, I had to use the card at regular purchase rate, I have gone through 3( yes THREE rate jacks and they have always come back down a little bit) but still up to 16.8 from the 9.9 when opened the account.... this month they raised rate to 36.99!!!! (yes you read that right to)

I closed the account to lock in my 2.9 for the balance transfer and 16.8 for the rest of the balance.

I have been a cardholder for almost 3 years... not my loss! 

[Anonymous]

I saw your post while doing my research, CreditAddict. Sounds like we have very similar history with Advanta, I keep calling and getting the rate lowered a little but then it rises right back up in just a few months. I cant believe they jacked you up to 30%, though. That's what I would expect from a couple of missed payments, but not a regular user & timely payer! I would pif this one except I am taking advantage of that life-time 3% xfer for half my balance. I actually had a 4.99% purchase rate with them at one time, so of course I made purchases with it!

Waiting for another card to offer a good xfer so i can unload and sd this card. Shame on Adavanta.

Side Note - I entered my non-profit startup in Advanta's monthly $10,000 IdeaBlob contest and was one of the finalist. But turns out that they are paying a major national group - Teach For America - several thousand $$ every time one of their alumni enters and wins the contest. Result is that every month contestants have to compete in a popularity contest against TFA alums with their humongous network. Very unethical. Shame on you, Adavanta. 

[Creditaddict]

I think they are just like amex, they offered these low low fixed apr for balance transfer, people used them and then didn't pay them off because it's better to pay off other cards before a fixed for life card and they don't like people carrying a balance so they increase apr so high people transfer the balance elsewhere... not me!!

I have started paying less! lol

16% isn't good, but it's not my worse and it's only for about 4k, I still have over 6k locked at 2.9 

[GregB]

Advanta was the worst Rate Jacker for me. They changed from 7.99% to 20.59%. Biggest problem was that they sent no warning and by the time my statement arrived I had paid the higher rate for 3 weeks. They claimed they sent a letter. They dropped it a bit when I bitched to 16%. It is now 18.18%.

I PIFed online while I was talking to the CSR, which meant some other stuff carried a balance. I resisted the temptation to close the account since I have learned that is not a good choice. I was using the card for $3,000 to $8,000 per month for purchases and in the three month since then my biggest month was $150. I liked using the Advanta card since it was a true business card and didn't show on my credit reports.

BofA gets my business instead and the Advanta card gets used for the one vendor that still has it on file which means less than $2000 a year in business. At the end of 12 months I will mail them a letter along with copies of the statements from BofA showing they tossed away around $100,000 a year in business to cheat me out of $46 in interest.

Of course I realize that will be just an unnoticed blip on their radar. It costs me the 10-20 point FICO hit for an average of $10,000 higher debt showing on my FICO since the card now being used shows on my reports.

[Anonymous]

I did not realize that the Advanta card does not show on credit reports. Can you explain how that works?

[GregB]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I did not realize that the Advanta card does not show on credit reports. Can you explain how that works?

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Reread the line: "I liked using the Advanta card since it was a TRUE BUSINESS CARD and didn't show on my credit reports."

It is an "Advanta Platinum BusinessCard" and is in the name of my business that is not a Sole Proprietership. Some business cards are solely in the business name and appear on a FICO as an inquiry for the principals in the business. I have another LLC that has a Capital One that is in the business name. Amex was the only one that gave me a business card that did not appear on my FICO for the business that is a Sole Proprietership.