- Report: #179733
Complaint Review: Harbour Credit Counselling - Providian Credit Cards - Virginia Beach Virginia
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Author Confirmed
Why?
Harbour Credit Counselling - Providian Credit Cards
P.O. Box 9228 Virginia Beach, 23450-2389 Virginia, U.S.A.
Phone:
800-887-2389
Web:
N/A
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Business Rating:
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Harbour Credit Counselling, Providian Credit Cards Ripped Off from Harbour Credit Counsellors and Providian Credit Card ripoff Virginia Beach Virginia
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.
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.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Tom
Somewhere Else,Other,
Zimbabwe
Good Experience with Harbour Credit
#2Consumer Comment
Fri, June 13, 2008
I was searching for Harbors fax number when I came across this report. While I understand the issue about seeing the what appears to be the rising balance, we dug deeper and found out it was our creditor, American Express, whose policy it was to not show the new balance from the payments in their statements. All of our other account balances dropped in line with what our agreement was. Harbour Credit has done exactly what shoudl have been done, helped us lower our payments and reduced our interest rate DRAMATICALLY from what it was. We are now off the plan, and it's much to their credit that we are.
