I have a small business and have a good credit standing and a long time client of Advanta Credit Card. I used their 6.99 fixed percent promotional checks they offered for life, then my interest was raised to over 36 percent. After many calls and emails requesting an explanation the only response the representative gave is that I didn't use my card on a regular bases. It seems to me to be extortion not to much different than the mafia. I refuse to be intimidated by unethical, greedy corporate raiders. Please inform me of any recourse or class action suits. I will fight.

I would love to join in on a lawsuit with this company. We have well overpaid any money we have borrowed from them plus extra. I contacted them & requested lower interest rate or they would receive no more money from me. I was informed by them that they could not lower interest rate & advised me to contact a credit consolidation company to pay my bills. I regret ever using this company & they will not get another dime from me.
This country is in bad shape thanks to things such as crooked credit card companies. Count me in on class action lawsuit.
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I had an Advanta card for several years and had around $3000 left to pay off when I spotted a deal where I could transfer my balance from other accounts to Advanta for 2.99% interest. It included transfers from other credit cards of lesser amounts and the total balance after the transfers was about $7000. I asked what the monthly payment would be and set up monthly automatic payments through my bank for about $20 over the minimum amount I was told would be charged monthly. Generally, I'm very careful to check the bill each month to ensure that I'm paying the right amount. Somehow, I failed to do so, discovering the "problem" only after someone with a thick foreign accent called to tell me I was being hit with a huge late fee and other fees. Why? Because the minimum amount was $4 more than the payment I'd made! I paid an exorbitant phone transfer fee to solve the problem and was told they would waive the late fee (and it wouldn't affect my credit) because I'd taken care of it right away. I had this feeling I should immediately transfer everything to another credt card account, which I did. A month later, I received information in the mail that said my interest rate was going to around 32%--at the beginning of the month. The problem is I'd received the notice at the end of the month it was to begin. I figured out that had I not transferred the balance immediately, the cost of the interest would have been about as much as the balance transfer, except I'm now paying about 6.9% interest instead of 33% each month. Advanta’s wonderful 2.99% balance ended up costing plenty. After this experience, I wondered, "What about people who CAN'T transfer their money and they're stuck?"

I think the best thing people in the US can do is write about their experiences to their public officials (congress, the president, the governor, etc.) and write, and write. Pres. Obama mentioned this problem, so there's a slim possibility a deluge of mail, phone calls, and email might have an effect. For people faced with this kind of interest rate who have nowhere to transfer their money, there are good suggestions from others burned by Advanta.

I have had a business account for over 4 years now and have never been late and I always pay the full amount. Over Christmas I was checking online because each one of my employees have a credit card through us for expenses. I could not get on my site. I called and they said I did not mail a payment. I was speaking to someone in India and they said I needed to pay in order to log on. I said I have the check number and they said they did not receive the check. I told them I would give them the checking account no. but they needed to take off $125.00 finance charge and late fee which they agreed to do. I also told them to make a record I was going to stop payment on the check they said they never received and they agrreed to do this. Yeah right. I go online 1/26 to check my balance and low and behold, finance charge is now higher and they have a $35.00 stop payment fee. I called immediatly and asked to speak to a supervisor or manager which took forever to get one here in the states. I spoke to Cody Belnal who must have been having a bad day who said we would never say that, the finance charges will apply because we were late but he would take off the late fee and the check charge but I had no business stopping payment on that check. Duhhhh like I am going to pay your twice. He was very rude so I told him we spend alot of money with them and they will lose it, he did not care. This is why our banking is such a mess, India is promising anything to get payment and no one cares about customer service. Please Mr. President, don't give Advanta any help, they need to go under. By the way, I called the corporate office. The operator said there is no fax number for the corporate office so I asked for the customer service fax number and she said there is no fax number for the customer service office but she would transfer me to that department. They transferred me alright, I was speaking not to customer service but to another irate customer who was placed on hold. We both agreed to let everyone know about our experience with Advanta.

I began this card with an introductory rate of 6.9%. I have never missed or been late on a payment, yet they have tried repeatedly to raise the rate on my card, which still managed to slide up to 13%, regardless of my efforts. Now, they just raised my rate to 37.18%! I kid you not. Calls to them informed me there was nothing I could do. There was a period during which I could have "opted out" of the rate hikes, but that period of time ended just prior to receiving their latest bill, of course. I will be joining any class action suit against them for their practices and cannot believe our country allows a company to perpetrate these criminal actions upon its customers.