WaMU purchased Providians portfolio in order to have a large enough presence in the credit card market. They sold off most of the subprime accounts earlier this year to SST and CB&T. they have slowly been upgrading thei portfolio to near-prime, some prime and are slowly working towards more prime affiliation.
It is a good time to get in if you ca, because I believe their standards are still in the process of undergoing further tightening even though, like most issuers, they still offer cards on different tiers.
I would bore you by telling you they are my absolute favorite card. Not that anything is outstanding, just that they have a way of rewarding customers who maintain good relatinships.