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Guest · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 11:23 am Subject: Advanta Bank?

I talked today with a lady regarding my 57 day late Advanta account. First of all she mentioned to me debt management, I then mentioned to her that dmp would not help my monthly payments be lowered and I mentioned debt settlement. She then told me that they do not deal with DS companies as they require them to "sell" my account and they don't do that. I had never heard that before. And she also said that as of the 30th my account would leave her department and so somewhere else, collections I assumed. I explained my situation to her and she wasn't rude but she still was wanting me to make a whole payment when I had just explained that I could not. We then got cut off when I went down into a bad cell phone place. If they don't deal with DS companies, will they deal with DS lawyers?

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:18 pm Subject:

I had an Advanta account also. It was a business account, a whopper of an amount since my business had closed, and they were very aggressive in trying to collect on it, even going so far as to call my elderly parents again and again, with whom I haven't lived in over 25 years. The last time I paid on it was in December of 2007. I have been in a debt settlement program since February, and it is true that they never would sell the account to a debt collector, and they would not talk to my settlement company. Instead, they offered me personally a settlement and told me if I didn't take it they would sue. Well, I took it, and good thing, because I did receive a summons just a day later. They had apparently mailed it out to coincide with the time frame in which the offer was made. (Of course, since I took their offer, the summons was invalidated by them.) They don't mess around. This all just happened in the first two weeks in September, so it took nine months to get to the point where they made the offer to me. So I can tell you from experience, they will hold the account themselves, not deal with a settlement company, and then offer you the option of settling with their offer or being sued. In my case, it was a super offer, and the people I talked to there were swell about it, but it had to be done on my own. The settlement company is then adjusting my monthly payment to reflect the absense of that account (and its fees) from the program, so my monthly payment will be less.

Guest · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:35 pm Subject:

The settlement they offered you, was it a lump sum or are you able to make payments? Do you mind giving me an example of the percentage? My balance is roughly $6700, give or take late fees? And did they take away your fees? She told me today if I could make a payment by next Tuesday she could wave the fees that had accrued but I am not able to do it. Did they turn you over to a collection agency? Or collections department?

guest · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:43 pm Subject: advanta collectors

My mom is a professional collector with Advanta in Horsham, Pa.
They are given incentives daily to collect on all accounts. She has negotiated settlements for $.20 cents on the dollar...especially on accounts that the customer states their business has closed and they have no money.
She handles all accounts over 150 days....they do settlements all day long. After 180 days....they outsource collections to a 3rd party but are always engaged. Good luck all!

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:03 pm Subject:

Advanta was one of our most aggressive creditors, calling EVERY single day without fail, and my balance was under $2000. I do remember reading somewhere on this site about an Advanta Help site or something like that where the person just went online and took the settlement offer that was listed.

guest · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:21 pm Subject: advanta collection strategy

Advanta outsources a phone dialer from India to call repeatedly throughout the day. Many people in Pa have lost their jobs because of this outsourcing. It doesn't matter how much you owe Advanta....they will repeatedly call 9-12 times a day.

Guest · Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:49 pm Subject:

It's advantahelps.com but I have been there and repeatedly told I do not qualify for any of their programs. I guess 57 days late isn't late enough. And they do call many times a day.

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:36 pm Subject:

I don't remember how late the person was that got a settlement from that site, but it seems to me that it was nearing charge off, so it was probably close to 180 days. And even if you answer the phone and talk to them every day, they will still call back the next day. Since I knew that we were going to file BK and it didn't matter if they decided to sue us, I finally just started picking up the phone every day when they called, and as soon as they identified themselves, I would hang up. Then they wouldn't call again until the next day, so it gave me a few hours of peace!

Posted: Tue Sep 23, 2008 9:20 pm Subject:

Guest, I owed 22,600 at the time of the settlement. It was only 19,000 when I stopped paying the bill, so no, they did not waive any fees. BUT, what they offered me was a 10% settlement (!), payable in two installments, and they would not budge on that as I begged for them to stretch it out to three or four. The first payment had to be made by the end of that particular week, so I had 3 or 4 days to scramble to come up with it. The second payment was due in another two weeks. Luckily, I had someone I could borrow the money from. This was all done directly through Advanta's own collection department. I want to say also, that back last year when I knew I was going to be having problems, out of all the cards I had (and there are a lot!) Advanta was the ONLY one that agreed to lower my interest rate. But I had my business account with them a long time, and they understood that the business closing was due to unforeseen circumstances not of my doing. I think the good settlement offer was the result of my having been a customer for many years, the huge balance I had, the fact my business no longer existed, and that there were a total of 9 cards I defaulted on. But then, if I hadn't been lucky enough to have someone to borrow that money from, I'd have had to go to court.

Guest · Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:01 am Subject:

Just an update. Today when I logged in to my Advanta account I had 2 offers. One to lower my interest to 16.99 , had to make a $770 payment and one to lower it to 21.99 and had to make a $254 payment. Now I am over my credit limit which of course means more fees. There was a 3rd option to explain why you were unable to accept either of these offers. That is the choice I took and tried to explain that the only way I could make payments was to rewind my account to July, reduce minimums and put my interest rate back. I was 2 days late, called and told them I was sorry for being late and made the payment and thats what started this ....I told them that I was really not wanting to file BK, that I knew that was a last resort, and I hoped that we could work something out. What do you all think?

Posted: Fri Sep 26, 2008 7:14 am Subject:

Well, it's always worth a try! However, my experience with creditors was that they pretty much have a system and an agenda that they stick to, and they don't vary from that no matter what you tell them.

My guess though is that the offers will improve as time goes by . . .

Pierre · Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:28 am Subject: Credit Reporting

I have a business card with Advanta, and I have fallen behind over the last couple of months. To my horror after 4 years all of the balance appeared on my personal credit. My score just dropped by 120 points. Has this happened to you

Posted: Mon Sep 29, 2008 7:46 am Subject:

Yes, it did. I originally had THREE business cards (3 of the 9 that I defaulted on and that are in the settlement program) and while the cards were current, they were not even on my credit report because I had used my EIN number as my identification and not my social security number. BUT, when my business closed, the EIN number became invalid and it all went under the SS#. I think when you fall behind and it is reported to the credit bureaus, it will go under your SS# even if you still have an active EIN. My score was about 780 when I started the settlement, but that would've dropped anyway, even if I had continued to make the regular monthly payments, because my debt-to-income ratio was shot and I was carrying way too much balance. Most of them were near 100% filled, if not already there. My credit score is now in the lower 600's, the last time I checked. Advanta has said they will mark my credit report "PAID AS AGREED, BUT LESS THAN ORIGINAL BALANCE OWED" (or something to that effect.) I do have about a dozen other cards that did not have balances, or had very low balances, that I did not enter into the program because I only had to put in the ones that had over $500 on them. Two of the ones left out, even with a zero balance, were cancelled by the creditors anyway. The others are still active, I buy a small thing here and there and pay it off right away, just to show I can be responsible with THOSE (and thank heaven for the gas cards, now that the prices for gas are so high!) so I am hoping the responsible use of the ones I have left is helping to keep my credit score from tanking altogether.

Anon · Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:28 pm Subject:

Worked for Advanta doing collections for many years. Advanta runs everything based on month end. If they say it is leaving their department or it is being forwarded or moving forward all that means is it is going to the next stage delinquency and a new team of collectors will call it. If it was being sold or charged off, they'd flat out tell you. The whole "forward, leaving" thing is just to try to get you to pay by the last day of the month because that is the cut off for that team to collect and meet their standard and hope to earn a bonus.

It is correct that they will not work with a debt settlement company. That is not a bad thing. debt settlement companies don't do anything you can't do yourself and they charge you a whole lot of money to do it. You would be better off just socking your money away in a savings account for a few months and then trying to negotiate with your creditors on your own. It isn't that Advanta will never settle, it's that they only settle directly with the customer. You can get settlement offers at earlier stages of delinquency, it depends on how bad your situation is. There are letters generated automatically and you can make a settlement offer.

I will agree with everyone that they are the worst when it comes to being aggressive. It was embarrassing to me how often we called people. They'd tell me their whole terrible situation and talk about how they had no money at all and then I had to call them 2 days later and make them tell me the same crap all over again. I know most of their jobs are heading or already in India so it will only get more frustrating. The best advice I can give anyone is to never get any credit cards - go to daveramsey.com - but if you feel you have to have one, DO NOT get an Advanta.

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 12:11 pm Subject:

AMEN to that! I have learned lessons about credit cards the hard way. When you are in business, though, they are necessity for purchasing inventory, etc., and it is too easy for them to get out of hand. At least I know that when my settlement is over, the worst will be behind me and I won't ever find myself in this situation again.

Guest · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:34 pm Subject:

You are exactly right about this! The guy I talked to just yesterday was adamant about Oct. 31st being the last day my account would be in his office but he could lower my interest to 21.99 if I would set up a payment for then. I told him very politely that quite honestly the interest rate was the least of my concerns if I could not make the new minimum payment and if by some reason I could make the Oct payment what was going to happen in November? So needless to say I did not set up the payment. He was going to credit my account some amount to help me, but the new minimum payment is going to be the issue...

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