DO NOT USE ADVANTA CREDIT CARD

Let me tell you about my experience with Advanta Credit Card Company.

I loved them for 4 years. Doubled paid my bill a week early. I had two cards with them. One was 7.9 fixed and the other 8.9 fixed. I was so happy and they always were there for me until....... They decided to raise my interest rate on the one card to 16.9% and the other card 21%.

They never sent me a letter which by law they are supposed to. I completely lost it. I was so fuming when I realized they double and almost tripled my interest for no reason whatsoever.

So I screamed at their customer service person on how I was a great customer, and that I was a credit card company's dream client.

At the END of the call the customer service lady said she would bring my first card down to 8.9% and the other one down to 9.9%. I then screamed at her and said, "WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST BUMP IT UP TO THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!" What are they trying to do, see how much money they can steal from you without you knowing????

Then to top it off, I come home and find out my wife ordered some stupid TV product called Awesome Auger. She didn't buy one, she bought TWO of them. I walked in the door and told her to cancel the order. I already got an Awesome Auger from someone as a gift and it ain't awesome at all. So she canceled the order..... so we thought.

Well, it seems they charged us $60 for this stupid device and sent it to us anyway. They also charged us $64 TO SHIP THIS PIECE OF GARBAGE!!!!! $64!!!! YES. I DID NOT TYPE THE SHIPPING WRONG. $64. $4 MORE THAN THE COST OF THE LOUSY PIECE OF JUNK.

So we went to our lovely Advanta Credit Card company and we put it in dispute. We went back and forth with dispute letters explaining how we canceled the day we bought it and we want our money back. Every penny! Advanta finally writes us and says:

"Under MasterCard regulations the merchant has provided sufficient documentation to support the transaction they billed to your account........ Your best recourse is to continue to pursue this issue directly with The Awesome Auger."

Are you kidding me? That's it? Oh, no that is not it!

Here is my next course of action. Starting monday morning I will be calling the corporate office at 215.657.4000 and I will be speaking with the following people:

Dennis Alter Chairman & CEO
William A. Rosoff Vice Chairman & President
Philip M. Browne sVP and CFO

I probably will only get to speak to their assistants, but that is okay. Because they are going to get to know me better than their own mothers. Everyday I am going to start my day with a cup of coffee and a phone call to all three of them. I am going to speak with them through the holidays. I will call their voicemail when they are not in the office and continue to leave messages asking for them to credit my account $131.50. That's right. It will be the hardest $131.50 I have ever earned and it will be worth it.

To be continued........

UPDATE 10/21/08

We have a lawyer in NY who is interested in doing a CLASS ACTION law suit. If this situation happened to you, please contact the following lawyer to be included in the class action law suit against Advanta.

alan l. finkel, esq
p.o. box 49
commack ny 11725
631 462 3100
nymediation.com
cloudcowboy@aol.com

I would write him an email immediately so not to take up too much of his time.

Please include:

1. your full name
2. your phone number
3. your address
4. your email address

We appreciate him even considering doing this. Ironically, Advanta did this to Mr. Finkel, too.