I received a call earlier today from Advanta stating that I had missed a payment and that they required

payment immediately in order to keep the account open. I questioned into the matter and referred to my

records as I have never been late or paid less than the minimum required payment. Even with providing them

with the pertinent info of the check (number, amount, date issued & sent) they stated they never received it.

I asked if they have ever had a check get set aside in processing for any reason that it would take over

three weeks to clear. Indeed, it had not cleared my bank yet, so I agreed very cooperatively to bring my

account current immediately over the phone. After this was processed I requested that the late fees and

other penalties be reversed as the check was not received through no fault of my own, I had an excellent

payment history with Advanta, and showed good faith by rectifying the problem immediately when I was notified

of it. I was flatly denied this first by a CSR that said "we cannot do that, ever." A second CSR attempted

to do so but said his system would not let him process the adjustment. Finally, I spoke to a supervisor who

said that no adjustment could be made. I conversed with him asking Advanta to show good faith in this

situation as I had done by rectifying the problem immediately, and the supervisor simply stated, "we don't

care what you've done or why this has happened. You're going to have a late fee and it will be reported to

the appropriate bureaus." I then told him that I would be taking my business elsewhere if Advanta had such

poor customer service. His reply: "Well, that's just fine by us. You're only one customer, and we have

thousands more that won't care about our service."

Closed my Advanta account. Transferred the remaining balance to another, more customer-service oriented

creditor. Now I must eat the cost of a stop-payment on a lost check, a late fee that I should not have been

assessed, and loss of available credit from the creditor. Even so, those actions are worth it to go to a

creditor that actually CARES about its small business accounts!

IF YOU EVER EXPECT THE NEED FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, DO NOT USE ADVANTA!!!

This information will be forwarded to the BBB as well as the FTC.