Why Did Advanta Close My Credit Card To New Charges?
A question many cardholders are asking is “Why is Advanta freezing my credit card account from new charges and transactions?” Well, don’t take it personally, it’s not just you. On June 10th, 2009, Advanta will be freezing its entire credit card portfolio… preventing new charges, balance transfers, cash advances, or any other transaction on all of its cardmembers’ accounts.
Why? Simply put, too many customers are defaulting on their bills. Advanta only issues small business credit cards, and as we know, many of these businesses have been hit especially hard by the economic downturn.
It is unclear as to what Advanta plans next. They were offered TARP funds months ago, but refused. Many feel this was an irresponsible decision, being that even then, their stock was trading for pennies and they were sustaining out of control losses.
The rewards card was one of the most popular credit cards issued by Advanta
Cardmembers that carry a balance or are dependent on using their cards are now left in the dark. They have just a few weeks to find a replacement card. Unfortunately, small business credit cards have dried up and it is extremely difficult to get one now, and if you do qualify, the credit limits are a fraction of what they normally would be. In turn, many small business owners are having to open personal credit cards as their replacements. For those that pay their balances in full each month, the best charge cards may be a good option to consider. For those that carry balances, unfortunately all of the best 0% balance transfer offers have been watered down significantly. I suppose the best solution would be to take what you can get and hopefully in a few months, you will be able to change it over to a better balance transfer offer.
I have a $8,000 balance on my Advanta card I will now have to transfer offer. I’m not sure if I will be able to find a card with a high enough credit limit.
Is it possible Advanta refused TARP funds because it didn’t want to risk the exposure of suspect or illegal business practices that may be going on there? Considering they raised everyone’s APR last fall by as much as 30% with no explanation, I’d say it’s possible.
Advanta is the biggest scam credit card there is today.
Maybe they should be rename “Take Advanta Of You” Bank Corp. They reduced my credit limit without prior notification and when questioned they said in the “fine print” they could do anything at any time. I would urge any small business owner to avoid this card at all costs and not subject yourselves to the underhanded practices that this company resorts to. My rate was also raised from the introductory rate of 7.99% (a come on) to 32.99% in a matter of 7 months. Please pass along these warnings to every small business owner you know so they don’t get scammed by this very unprofessional and underhanded company.
I am sorry to see Advanta go. They were the best credit card company my business ever dealt with. We charged over 25G per month on this card and always paid it offer with the next months earnings. Unfortunately, it was those of you who didn’t pay your debt off, or just flat out stuck them footing the bill that caused this. Business is business. As such, I would have made the same decision for my company if the vast majority of people I extend credit to were not paying their bills. This is exactly what is wrong with America. It’s always someone elses fault for the poor financial decisions we make. Fortunately for my business, I have excellent credi and was able to obtain 2 new cards with 50g limits on them.
The whole credit situation and the company that created the FICO score by design favors the credit grantor, not the customer. What type of industry would make it very easy for you to get credit and then have rules that trap you in a situation that favors the creditors. It is in the creditors best interest to have people with lower scores thereby collecting more interest payments and fees. My FICO is just under 700 and I was late once with Advanta. I paid the entire balance off twice and use it for my photography business which is now halted. Advanta’s tactics was a non-proportional response based on the positive history I have with them. Also Advanta new about their situation months before notifying their customers. Regardless of what the fine print says Advanta needs to be held accountable and should be forced to produce another card holder account for their cusomters. A better way would have been to get another company to secure credit cards for their customers and port these first. This way they would have immediately collected their owned money and then the credit for small business would keep flowing. Everybody wins. It came at a time when using the Advanta credit card would have got my business flowing to where I would be making more money. I am trying to see how I can sue them for this. It is time for consumers to have more rights and power than Big Business. The US is only 233 years old. I believe a revolution is coming. Large companies have to many rights way out of proportion than citizens do. I see even more corruption and a downfall of American life. For the first time in my 50 years I never thought I would consider leaving this country. Since I am one person where is my rights or bail out? See. I am not a big company therefore we are suppose to just take it.
I liked Advanta. All this bad talk. If you paid your bill on time every time they were actually a pretty good card to have!
I cannot say that I am surprised that my monthly statement that I just received was now “Account Closed.” I have used this in our small business and have never missed a payment. I had no notice that this was going to happen. Just shows you how much this card company “really cares about small business’s” NOT!! Don’t worry I won’t make the same mistake again. Anything with Advantas name associated with it I will steer clear!!