Complaint Review: Harbour Credit Counselling - Providian Credit Cards

At one time, I had way too many credit cards. I was working however and always paid them on time. Then I began babysitting grandchildren and had to quit my job due to health reasons and the babysitting full time. Immediately we ran into credit card trouble. Any that were late automatically upped their interest rates. I contacted Harbour Credit Counselling Services to help me repay the credit cards. They set us up on a repayment plan of $693 per month, automatically taken out of our checking. They charge $20 for performing this service to you, so $673 was actually going towards the credit cards. We were just glad that the phone calls stopped.

After receiving acceptance letters from Providian and some of the others, we noticed that the payments were not going down, but were going up instead. Example: One Providian was being paid an agreed amount of $118 per month, YET they were charging $135 in interest! They also added late charges for a few months after sending the acceptance letter. Their interest rate remained at 29.99 percent.

Harbour advertises to have you debt free in 5 years, but that was not even remotely possible when some of the balances were going up instead of down. We had 3 Providian Accounts. In the first year, we paid Harbour $8316, yet the total balance of the credit card debt had only went down about $400!!!

A friend recommended that I contact another credit counselling service which I did. They said it was not a good idea to switch services, but they offerred some priceless advice. That company is actually ran by lawyers. They said that by law, the credit cards were supposed to lower their interest rates to a set amount as soon as we entered into the debt repayment program. Providian should have lowered their interest rate to 8 percent right away. Instead they collected hundreds more dollars in interest charges. They should have to pay that money back.

The other credit counselling service that I contacted usually can get the credit card companies to agree to a zero percent interest. In my friends case, they even applied their monthly charge to her debt. I had to contact Harbour about knowing my rights within the law concerning these interest rates. Does companies like Harbour recieve kickbacks for allowing companies like Providian to continue this bad practice?

I would never have another Providian credit card. Also after I got the interest rates straightened out and down to 8 percent, one of the Providians sold my account to Aspire since they couldn't collect their high interest rate any more. I am highly upset at both Harbour for not doing their job and at Providian for being the worst credit card company I have ever dealt with.

I could have filed bankruptcy, but chose to pay them off instead. Wouldn't you think that they would be a little more kinder and professional to a person who was trying to pay them off?

Deborah
Taylorsville, Kentucky
U.S.A.