I am reporting this not to say not to get a credit card but beware! I was a long time card holder with this company and paid my bill every month without any problems always on time and always more than minimum due.

2 months ago I noticed that my interest rate went from 8% to 27.9% This was a shocker so i called Providian and asked the lady why the interest had gone up. She replied 'you did not pay your payment last month' which i responded back that I had paid it and had the receipt to prove it. She then told me that there was nothing she could do.

I then asked her to get a supervisor and she told me that the supervisor would tell me the same thing. So I said ok and good bye and started to look into it a little further. Well come to find out i had made my payment but it was a day early for the billing cycle and they had applied it to the previous month.

With that i called back in and informed another lady of what happened. She responded, ' we're sorry but that is your problem and there is nothing we can do for you so you will have to keep making your payments at the higher interest rate for 6 months and then then we can bring you back down to a 15% rate. Then i told her that i will just pay the card off and cancel my account and then said goodbye and to have a nice day.

2 days later I managed to get the cash up to pay the card off and according to the bill my payoff was $XXXX.XX well then when i called them back to make the payment I asked what the pay off was to make shure the amounts were the same and she came back with a price that was $169 higher than the normal pay off. I asked her what was with the higher price and she told me it was the interest for that month. I told her it was the beginning of the month and there should be no interest, and that i would not pay the extra $169 only the payoff that actually was needed.

With that said she got angry and said 'You will either pay the extra plus the payoff or we will call the collection agency right now and report me so that i could pay the payoff +plus the extra interest+the collection fees.
Make a long story short I had no choice but to pay it off because I pride myself on my good credit.

In conclusion i payed the whole balance plus the interest and then canceled the card well at least i thought. they said they closed the card but then 2 months later i received a statement to an account that i thought was closed.

So credit card users BEWARE. these people are rude and uptight and will bend you over backwards to make a even bigger profit from you!

I usually pay WAMU's bill in person by check at WAMU's branches. Last month I decided to pay via telephone a few days prior to the due date. I, repeated all information including the route #, etc. to WAMU's Customer Service person on the telephone.

A couple of weeks later WAMU sends me letter stating: that I gave the telephone person incorrect information, increases my fees plus a late charge. Thus, I drove to the Branch where I do business with explanation to the Bank Manager that since WAMU made the mistake I should not pay additional fees. Thus, an adjustment was agreed on by WAMU's managers stating that they would cancel the late fee charge of $39.00. Instead of paying $50.00 each month WAMU charged me $133.00+$39.00 late fee for their mistake! Anyone doing business with WAMU should go to the bank's branch and pay in person by check. I am being RIPPED OFF.

I have a WAMU online saving account, today, when i was trying to move money around with my other accounts, i found out that they were charging me $10 per transaction for every withdraw over 6 in this billing cycle.

I never know this before and this is the first time i see this. While i was using my MMA at HSBC, they usually send me a letter of warning, but not charge a fee like this. I tried to call their customer service to reverse the fee. I showed them this is the first time and 2 of the 3 'excessive' transactions due to the setup of direct deposit with other bank for me to move the money to WAMU (the other bank send in 2 small deposit and did a small withdraw.). The representative seems reasonable but explained to me that only the supervisor can reverse the fee.

The supervisor simply told me that that fee was used to 'teach me a lesson' and kind of required by the federal law. Yes, i learned the lesson and i then called in to close my account immediately and have all my money transferred.

WAMU has poor customer service, their 'free' banking has more hidden fees then other banks. People at WAMU are not reasonable, greedy and that is probably why WAMU is closed and taken over. And i wish this 'supervisor'(Eric) to lose his job in this financial crisis and therefore he can learn the lesson to be a a more decent man while serving the customer.

On the due date, I went to make payment on line and was told that I had to pay express of $14.95 for no reason. As this was on the due date I do know that batching of computers is not until 1200 midnight...I intend to write to Washington about fraud on part of credit card companies and WAMU is the beginning...No wonder people have high debt because we are being ripped off constanly by these banks in one way or another. I am also writing to my congressman...We need changes and Washington needs to correct these institutions who believe they are invincible...they're not. Wa Mu should go under for their unscupulous actions on the part of their creditholders. Speak up!

I took out a home equity loan with WaMu and they offered to reduce the interest rate by 0.25% if I set up automatic payments from a WaMu checking account. It worked fine for a few payments, but then I started getting charged late fees and NSF fees because my loan wasn't being paid. After months of fighting with them, they said it was because someone put a freeze on my checking account, but they had no idea who or why. I have been trying to get the fees reversed, but the two departments don't communicate and just pass the buck back and forth. So now I owe over $300 in fees caused by their incompetence. BTW, their customer service is the worst I have ever encountered. It is impossible to contact a real person on the phone and emailing usually results in a form letter reply that doesn't address the problem.