Institution Inflexibility for Credit Lenders

Dear Advanta Bank Corp,

In regards to my credit card account#:xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I spoke with Carol last month in your customer service department. I initiated an electronic payment on the weekend. At that time, in September 2007, your system did not do transactions on the weekend. And my payment was received a couple of days late.

As your computer automatically tracks this, I saw it coming. My 7.99% life of the balance rate was raised to 17%, late fee assessed and a refusal of Advanta to notice my six years of great record and say “There’s nothing we can do to put it back.”

Do you realize that as a credit institution you are the ONLY institution that treats people with this amount of inflexibility? People are not robots. If a payment is late even once a year, that’s a good record in my book. And apparently the phone companies, the gas company, the LA DWP, DMV, and cellphone companies ALL agree with me.

They are all designed to work with people and are flexible if things are not on time. They don’t turn off the water, power, phones and gas the second a computer chimes in “late payment”.

17% is a vig, not an equitable interest rate. And with the fall of interest rates over the past 5 years you’ve seen fit to raise mine. I can see that banks have lobbied long & hard for the power to run roughshod over the public and charge exorbitant APRs for the majority of us and leave us no recourse.

How about working with people? How about treating humans as humans? How about refunding the excess interest? How about reinstating my 7.99% life of the balance? How about trying a different answer other than “I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do”?

You see, through your shortsighted efforts to overcharge me you will lose revenue in the long run. It’s not impossible to transfer the balance and let another company get an equitable interest rate from me over time. I think 10% sounds about right.

Surprise Me,

Jason