Accounts Being Closed At Advanta

Effective at the beginning of June 2009, the credit card company Advanta will be freezing the accounts of almost 1 million customers due to the current financial stress the company is experiencing. Most of the closed accounts belong to small businesses and self-employed account holders.

An email that was sent out to Advanta card holders stated:

Your Advanta Business Card account is funded by an independent trust which owns the balances you owe on your account and provides funding for new transactions. We expect the trust to stop funding activity on our accounts. The trust also restricts our flexibility to fund activity on your account. Unfortunately, as a result, effective May 30th all Advanta Business Credit Card accounts, including your account, will be closed.

Those with closed accounts will not be required to pay off owed balances immediately. Their balances can continue to be paid as per the original terms of the credit card agreement. Advanta seems to be undergoing severe financial stress and earlier this year, more than 300 employers were downsized from the company. Even many industry experts say the move to close customer accounts outright is unprecedented.

According to the company, outstanding customer credit card balances totaled over $4.5 billion. On the other side of the fence, customers have reportedly been complaining for months that Advanta has been raising consumer interest rates without notice or cause, with some consumers credit lines even being dramatically reduced.  There have also been reports of accounts being closed in previous months.

Since the new legislation to oversee credit card companies more closely when it comes to such radical changes to consumer accounts does not go into effect until next year, many credit card companies are still working to make a profit at the expense of their customers. Advanta has said they hope that their customers with remaining balances will pay off their charges in full but it is not clear where the company will stand in the near future.

If you have noticed changes, subtle or dramatic, to your credit card account, you should consider contacting your credit card company right away to get an explanation of the change and to put up your own fight to get your credit card terms back to their original conditions. Not all credit card companies will be agreeable to negotiations. In that situation, you may want to consider taking your business elsewhere. For those that will work with you, make sure you stay on your toes about making payments on time each month and keep from giving the credit card company any ammunition to raise your rates or cut your credit limits.

It is also important to remember that until the legislation goes into effect, any changes that are placed on your credit card account must be sent to you in writing at least 30 days before they happen. Credit card companies do have a habit of sending the notifications through the mail without much fanfare and as a result most people dismiss them completely. This leaves you at a disadvantage, especially if you have the opportunity to opt out of different changes. Make sure you always read all materials coming to you via mail by your credit card company, otherwise you might end up spending much more money in interest charges and fees than you essentially need to.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 7:18 am and is filed under Credit Card News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.