I am in the process of filing a Federal complaint against Advanta Credit Card company for consumer complaint, failing to comply with Regulation Z and the Fair Credit and Billing Act.

For more details, please see http://www.understandingfinancials.com/advanta%20complaint.htm

Nov. 2007 I applied for a credit card from Advanta with a zero interest rate for 12 months.

Dec 2007 I paid my bill in full and on time for $276; $90 paid Dec 7th and $186 paid Dec 18th. I made the payment thru BofA BillPay who has confirmed the payment was made.

Jan 2008 I received a notice from Advanta that $90 was overdue. Apparently the $90 paid on Dec 7th was not applied to my Dec bill. However I had no bill due in November so to which bill was my Dec 7th $90 payment applied? I contacted customer representatives who refused to acknowledge that the payment had been made. They refused to tell me to what bill the payment was applied. My bank records clearly state that I paid Advanta $90 on Dec 7th and $186 on Dec 18th. So what is the problem ... Advanta refused to acknowledge the payment was made in full and on time! The Dec 7th $90 payment was never applied to any bill but was absorbed by their billing software. This is the payment Advanta alleges is overdue when in fact it was payment to the Dec 2007 payment due (paid in a timely manner).

You would think sending Advanta a copy of bank receipts of these payments would have solved the issue. But this is not in Advanta's best interests. Manufacturing late fees and increasing the promised Zero percent interest to 29.99% is in their interests and doing so by whatever means necessary. Hang the law and put the requirement on the customer to prove the payments were made. Advanta Ms. Mindie Emmertson, Account Specialist, BBB liaison, simply refused to address the issue in 2 letters (sent by return receipt and received). Convenient for them temporarily. I'm just building my stack of well documented evidence.

I've received multiple weekly calls in the last six months including 11+ just today in a 4 hour period - May 28th, 2008. This just confirms that Advanta employees are completely ignorant of the laws under which they are obligated to conform for the privilege of acting as a Bank under FDIC regulation. I will subpoena the entire list of all calls, including transcripts and voice versions, made to my home as evidence of abuse. The ignorance of the law demonstrated by customer service making 11 harassing phone calls in 4 hours was similar to the customer service identifying a payment made in full and on time as overdue. As a result in my request for restitution I will request that all Advanta employees undergo training in all the federal laws that apply to Advanta because it is absolutely apparent that they have not been properly trained. The arrogance with which the Advanta employees act gives me reason to believe the law breaking is purposeful. 11 harassing phone calls in 4 hours is substantial evidence to support this premise amounting to $1000 in punitive damages.

I sent a certified letter to Advanta requesting they stop phoning my home. I received their signature that they received my letter.

On June 9, 2008, my home received (2) additional phone calls from Advanta in violation of the law requiring them to 1) stop phoning my home on written request 2) stop the harassing phone calls which the 2 calls in 1 day amounted to. This second incident of harassing phone calls requires that additional $1000 punitive damages should be imposed upon Advanta.

The overdue charge, which was for a $90 payment that had actually been made in full and on time, triggered late fees and increased my interest rate from 0 to 29.99%.

In Feb 2008 I provided my bank records of payment made to Advanta. They answered my letter with nonsense and never acknowledged my bank records showing the payments were paid in full and on time. It was apparent they had no intention of addressing the issue of my bank records because then they would have had to acknowledge that the payments were in fact paid on time. It was very apparent to me that Advanta customer service representatives were not incompetent but were actively engaged in the illegal conduct of the company, that is manufacturing late fees to increase interest rates.

I contacted the FTC (Fair Credit Billing Act), FDIC (Regulation Z), BBB, and locally the Nevada Attorney General's office.

The FDIC added my complaint to the list of issues to be reviewed during their next audit of Advanta.

The Utah BBB added my complaint to their list of 240 complaints against this company.

I am in the process of writing a Federal Complaint against Advanta Bank Corp which will be posted online late May or early June 2008.