Advanta (Yeah I Know!)

Dan V.

Got an email from Advanta today, which was a bit of a surprise. It seems their funding company has told them to go pound sand. As of May 30, 2009, all business cards and accounts will be closed.

Anyone else get this or did they just single me out? Not that I carry a balance, but I'll miss knowing that if I did, I'd only pay 7.99%

Here's the text of the email:

Dear Customer,
Effective May 30th all Advanta Business Credit Card accounts, including your account, will be closed. This is because Advanta Business Card accounts are generally funded by an independent trust which owns the balances owed on the accounts and provides funding for new transactions and we expect the trust to stop funding activity on our accounts. The trust also restricts our flexibility to fund account activity.

This means that you will not be able to use your card or account for new transactions, including purchases, checks and balance transfers beginning on May 30th. We understand that you may have written checks on your account before May 30th and we will make every effort to honor those checks that are presented to us for payment by June 3rd. If you use your Advanta card to make automatic recurring bill payments, you will need to make alternative arrangements for those payments promptly.

It is important to understand that you are not required to pay your entire balance at this time. You may continue to pay down your account balance over time, as allowed under your Advanta Business Card Agreement.

You will not lose the rewards that you have earned. If you participate in a Cash Back program, you will receive a check for the amount of any accrued rewards more than $1.00 as long as you make the required minimum payments and your account remains in good standing. If you participate in a Business Rewards program, you will have at least 60 days to redeem your points as long as you make the required minimum payments and your account remains in good standing.

We deeply regret the impact this action will have on your business and very much wish it was not necessary.

We are committed to assist you through this process. Additional information will be available at www.advanta.com/notice. If you have any other questions or concerns, or if we can assist you in any other way, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Center. You can email us your questions 24 hours a day at www.advanta.com/secure or call us toll free at (800) 705-7255, Monday - Friday 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and Saturday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

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Treeandland

Got the letter today, was waiting for Ed the roofer to chime in

mikec

I got it too.

Master Mechanic

I hope Advanta dies forever. They are really shutting down becaue of the new credit card law that was passed and signed by Obama last week.

I was one of the suckers that fell into Advanta's trap after they hiked my Interest rate from 7% to 32%. Since it was my only business credit card, I had to transfer my balance on a low rate personal card. I'm happy to see them go under

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Ed the Roofer

Too bad, but I do not consider this to be a success story of the "Davids" slaying the "Goliaths" out there.

The key executives will walk out of their with plenty in their package, while the small person who has become dependant on the liberal credit limits, whether that was foolhardy or not, will still be on the hook for their balance and now have one less source to utilize funds from.

Ed

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Jason Whipple

Wow, how many threads do we need on this subject?

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480sparky

Sounds like they realized they weren't going to make boat-loads of money (new laws going into effect next year), so they decided to take their ball & bat and go home.

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Aggie67

Got it also. I saw on Bloomberg TV 2-3 weeks ago that they've been hammered with deadbeat accounts (nearly 40% of cardholders) and they were being forced into throwing in the towel. The company itself will basically lay everyone off, and quickly turn into nothing more than a servicing company for payments for the rest of its existence.

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Ed the Roofer

The dead-beat accounts would not be so high, if they didn't raise the minimum monthly payment, from what the card holder was used to paying, to some astronomical fee per month.

Yes, the card holders did get themselves into that position, but with different payment terms required.

Now, they can not get a home equity loan and they owe more per month than ever before, so they just say, Fvck It.

Ed

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RizzoMaryland

I got the email today also.

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silvertree

Didn't get mine, but after reading this thread I got a new card a few minutes ago. I got a personal card that I'll use for business. Was at 7.99 with Advanta, now Capital 1 at 13.99 starting in 2010. Almost double even with excellant credit.

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Snobnd

Got mine today,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,But I dumped them 4 month's ago.

skymaster

Yep, got email and letter today. a month ago they jumped my rate from 15.9 to 22 !!!!!!!!!!!! And NO i dont have a big balance and am always on time and pay way more than the minimum. Only kept it cause it did have a nice limit if I ever needed it.

kbsparky

I also received a letter in the mail on Tuesday, the 26th. Logged on to the Internet later that evening, and there it was again, in the form of an account alert email telling me they were throwing in the towel.

I had 4 different vendors on automatic payments using the Advanta card, so I had to scramble to get them all changed to either my CrapitalOne, American Excess, or Chased accounts.

But Advanta was my only business MasterCard account.

My posted interest rate never changed from the initial 7.99%. But that was a moot point in any case, since I never paid a penny interest to them anyhow.

My thoughts are more towards the poor souls who may be traveling far away (even overseas) and find themselves SOL when the card suddenly stops authorizing new transactions.

I always carry several in the event that one card goes AWOL, such as the case is now with Advanta. Had a Chased account go bad once, due to fraud, but that is a different story.

I suppose that I could cash one of those so-called convenience checks tomorrow for about 20 grand (while I still can -- one day left you know), and then let them try to get it back from me....

Nah ... they ain't worth the trouble!