Advanta Bank is not willing for debt settlement - what to do?

I received a letter from Avanta, "saying their auditors are engaged in their regularly scheduled audit of their financial statement." They want me to confirm what I owe.

They want me to send it back to their auditor's KPMF LLP attention Mike Visconto in PA. Has anyone else received this. I do not agree with the fee's be cause I had not choice when the raised my interest rate.

I am in the process of signing up with a debt settlement company. Any suggestion from anyone? Has anyone else received this letter?

i was finally able to talk to somebody at advanta who helped me out. after getting nowhere with the collection agent other than closer to being sued, i demanded a contact at advanta whom i could speak to about my case. the collection agent really tried to dissuade me from speaking to anybody there, saying he could give me the name of somebody who *might call me back. in other words, don't count on it. after several tries i got the guy on the phone. turns out he's really cool and some sort of manager of the collection agencies. he listened to my case and told the agent to accept my offer to pay $500 (as opposed to $1000) by the end of the month. tiny victory in a long battle still to come. but so relieved i won't be getting sued, at least not yet.

IMHO, there won't be any more than a tiny handful of lawsuits anytime soon on account of Advanta. No matter how much they threaten.

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Has any one worked with Management Services out of PA to settle the ADVANTA account?

What can you tell me have they kept their word and has anyone had any problems if they have kept their payment plan up?

Originally Posted by Anonymous [URL="http://www.debtconsolidationcare.com/forums/showthread.php?p=505427#post505427"][/URL]
I received a letter from Avanta, "saying their auditors are engaged in their regularly scheduled audit of their financial statement." They want me to confirm what I owe.
They want me to send it back to their auditor's KPMF LLP attention Mike Visconto in PA. Has anyone else received this. I do not agree with the fee's be cause I had not choice when the raised my interest rate.
I am in the process of signing up with a debt settlement company. Any suggestion from anyone? Has anyone else received this letter?

I received this letter too. Today is the day I received a call from Ronald Gleason with Management Services Incorporated out of Langhorne PA 19047. He sent me a settlement letter for a payment plan. I just need to know if the are Crooks or the Real thing.

Can anyone help?

Beverly, Phillips and Cohen are nothing more than a collection company who pretend to come off as a law firm. They have beed "threatening" to recommend their "client" file suit in the State of Utah since July.

I know it will do them little good since my business was in Florida and they will have to go through some serious steps to sue me here. Which also means I get to tell a Judge and Jury my side of the story. Do you really think they will spend that kind of coin right now?

Folks-please don't believe that filing a suit means they automatically win. It would be nothing short of an up-hill battle and they do not have the resources, even if they do win, they have to sue you in your home State to attach a lien. Give me a break! As of present, THEY ARE BEING SUED by everyone they have ever worked with or employed. So that threat is and empty as Dennis Alter's skull cavity.

Advanta Corp filed BK to protect what little assets remain after Alter built his $80m mansion with our 35% interest rates. They would have BK'd Advanta Bank (the Credit Division) too but it is FDIC insured so it would not have been allowed.

I am certain right now FDIC officials are trying to find the right buyer to come in and take over Advanta Bank. When this happens I expect to get a more reasonable settlement offer or I will take the new owner to court-that is a promise.

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Now is not the time to consider paying anything. Wait until after the FDIC takes them over.

No bank is going to buy this wreckage, they're going to just transfer the deposits and performing accounts to some healthy bank and the nonperforming are going to go to a JDB ... and if you play your cards right with a JDB you'll pay nothing.

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Can someone tell me how to get ahold of someone at Advanta who can help me settle, I keep calling and I keep getting people in India who say the same thing over and over about how they can't help me. I keep trying to let them know I'm on the verge of bankruptcy and need to do something.

Someone please give me a contact name and number from somebody who is actually at advanta. Thanks in advance.

I have found the following address of Advanta.

Welsh and McKean Roads,
Spring House, PA 19477

Phone: 215-657-4000
Fax: 215-659-9479

See if it helps.

I have $12K that I owe Advanta and have been offered a settlement of $3700. Should I take it or hold out? I just received the first notice sent by a debt collector and I'll be sending a debt validation letter to them in the meantime. Should I settle now? Anyone else getting better offers?

You will be 1099'd (taxed) for 2009 proportionate to the difference between the settlement and the $12k balance. I wouldn't consider anything until January at the earliest.

I read numerous complaints of how people sent what they thought was a settlement payment, only to get bullied by a bill collector as if the payment was just an installment.

Personally I am not settling anything until after the FDIC steps in. IMO-Makes zero sense to negotiate with the "Credit Mafia".

How late are you? How long did it take to get an offer?

Back in July I told Advanta I will not pay the 35% interest they want to charge me. They began calling me at all hours and even early on weekends. At the time, I could tell those callers were in some sort of a sweat-shop in India.

After 2-3 months they seem to have sent my account back to the U.S. I recv'd calls from level headed American's who constantly informed me of some invisible countdown before the debt went to "Collections".

Around October(ish) Advanta offered me a 50% settlement as a last resort. I said no-thanks. They stopped calling me and in their place came "Phillips Cohen".

A little research has me convinced this is nothing more than a crooked debt collector with a reputation of twisting the law. Their callers (Miss Dupre and Tamika) pretend to be educated with the law. Yet they speak street Ebonics and read from a script prefaced by, "lemme ax you something..."

My question for anyone: Did Advanta sell the alleged debt to a junk debt buyer? Or did Advanta simply hire them to try to squeeze me?

Phillips and Cohen mailed a generic letter offering me a 75% settlement. If Advanta offered a 50% why would I take their's??? P and C also pulled my credit report without asking for permission. I want to nail this company and refuse to pay one cent.

Advanta will participate in a Debt Management plan
They will bring the interest rate to 0% interest and payments of 2.5%
it would be roughly 4 yrs to pay it off

How it's going to work:

The FDIC program (carried over from the sunsetted RTC) is called "JDC" for Judgments, Deficiencies and Chargeoffs.

For any particular package of JDC debts, the feds hold a "beauty contest" among potential junk debt buyers, and the winner gets to pay 1% of face value for the loans. The buyer must absorb all the costs of pursuing the debtors, but the sale is structured as a limited partnership ... the FDIC is a limited partner and it receives half of whatever comes in.

So does this means Phillips and Cohen bought my debt from Advanta or is this something that will evenetually come to be? Who the heck owns my debt? And how do I know if I settle, will Advanta's account show a $0 balance???

I am getting a sense that Advanta sold my debt and that P and C has no idea of previous correspondance with Advanta.

Contemplating taking this to court once the FDIC steps in b/c both of them seem as crooked as it gets.

Debt buyers are not really in the market right now. And to the extent they are in the market they're offering insanely low amounts. But in Advanta's case they know they can get it for less in the JDC program, so I doubt they're offering Advanta anything at all at the moment. In short, you're safe for now. Phillips and Cohen is just a collector, not a buyer.

Wife checked our CR today. Advanta Charged Off my Balance after my last call with that dick I had.

What exactly is in store for me now? I am still kinda clueless to this. Thanks

well you will either have to call them and see were it went, or wait it out till you eventually hear something as to were it went. alot of times when this happend to me they didnt even know were the account went. so you may have to wait it out till you hear something

Like a Junk Debt Buyer?
I almost settled with them but they were so unorganized, and was being lied to on the phone, I just didn't tust them..
Now I was really waiting for the FDIC to take over and see where it went from there.
So am I in worse shape then if they go BK and the FDIC takes over?

The account being charged off does not mean that the account has been sold (except where a creditor has a "forward flow" contract with a JDB). It will be sold at some future point. Maybe. More likely it will still be there when the FDIC comes in.

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For whatever it's worth Advanta's collector just called and offered me a settlement of just 30% of the alleged balance. My last payment to them was in May (when they jacked my rate to 35%)

I declined the offer.

I am providing this information to assist so many of you who have helped me through this miserable experience. Good luck to all.

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Anyone with a personal interest in this thread could benefit from the e-book "Debt Hope: Down and Dirty Survival Strategies"

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"I would like the settle the debt but only if I know for sure it will not haunt me in the future." When you settle you can never be sure of that. The only 100% certain way to make sure no debt ever haunts you again is filing for bankruptcy.

thats not true, when you reach a agreement you should also request that the letter states that the forgiven debt cannot be resold and that x amount satisfies the debt completely.

Exactly why did it need to be reset I was online this morning? This evening it was locked please explain this?
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Email received today 01/04/2010 from Mr. Kevin Walsh Senior Vice President...



ATTENTION MR. XXXX

Your account ending in XXXX is more than 5 days past due. Paying the amount of $498.00 will bring your account current.

Five days may not seem like much, but more than a single missed payment can impact or damage the credit you have worked so hard to establish. We don't want that to happen.

There are two ways you can pay us:


Pay by phone at 1-800-533-3686
Pay online at Advanta.com

If you've already sent in your payment, thanks so much.

Sincerely,
Kevin Walsh
Senior Vice President




DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE. The reply function is not equipped to handle customer communications. If you have questions call 1-800-533-3686.

As per my last three times talking with Advantas Customer Service representatives which only give first names with heavy Indian accents which are very hard to understand since the phone systems, head sets, speakers etc... alway have static noises or cut in and out and or until they hang up on me, about my situation with Advanta Bank and My account. During those three times I have tried to get an explaination of the interest rates that keep changing I understand that Advanta has 360,000 closed accounts and over 856 Better Business complaints on this subject. I have asked to get the interest rate reduced back to a workable level only to be told "Go seek Credit Help" Since the time I opened this account with a first year 0.0% rate then to 7.99 for over the last three years or until Advanta filed for Chapter 11, the rate s has changed several times on 07/20/08 to 19.99% then on 11/22/08 to 20.46% then on 12/21/08 to 21.33% and then back down to 19.99% on 03/26/2009 and now back up to 29.99% on 11/25/2009 I suspect this is one reason for the two Interest rate checks received due to FDIC ruling FDIC-09-266b.

Now it seems the last 3.5 years the rate at which I budgeted my purchasing for my business at 7.99 was set for my ability for payment, but when Advanta Closed and then changed the rates up and down causing a default to my account, now Advanta is asking me to not only pay the fees, the higher interest rates but the more then triple payment amounts, But since I have three other Credit accounts, that also chose to raise their interest rates and fees before the Governments new rate and fee limits that go into effect Next month for this same reason, I can only keep up with three of them as I had only $100.00 last month. I can However continue to pay as I can on this account if like the last three and a half years that worked fine for both parties If Advanta can lower the rate back to 7.99 and remove the fees this is doable. Unless Advanta like other card compaines are doing come up with new fees and ways to get more money from its customers. This has been a snowball effect on the consumers and does not benifit anyone.
I have since closed my business and am working on other ways to pay my debts, Your customer Service reps say seek Credit Debt Relief, which when it is all said and done charges almost the same fees, they could only save me about $300 per month, I say this to Advanta why doesn't Mr. Dennis Alter CEO, Ms. Leslie Elmore Director of Customer Service, Look at it this way, if Adavanta would revert back to those accounts of the 360,000 they have that were steady good paying customers go back to the rates they had then More money would be coming in every month with out all the extra work needed at your call centers. The word is out every single person or business contact I know nation wide that was an Advanta account holder will never ever use them again even if times start getting better, My work load has slowed to a crawl and I am knocking on the doors everyday, yet it is Compaines like Advanta that is ripping this country apart.
What do you say Mr. Dennis Alter? Ms. Leslie Elsmore? and Mr Kevin Walsh?
We the people need to work together and stop the Greed. If your neighbor came over to your house and asked for help Do you stand there and say pay me triple and I will help you out. I think not! If so then we are all in for even worse times this 2010 year.

Signed XXXXX

PS. I find it sad I can not even reply to the letter sent by Mr. Kevin Walsh but have to resort to sending it here where it will most likely not even get read but deleted. Also closing the account login for a new password was a bit tacky how do you expect to get online payments if one can not access their account online?

PS. I find it sad I can not even reply to the letter sent by Mr. Kevin Walsh but have to resort to sending it here where it will most likely not even get read but deleted. Also closing the account login for a new password was a bit tacky how do you expect to get online payments if one can not access their account online?
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I have a better one for you. Back in June I went to their website and paid off my balance owed. (or so I thought). Even printed a receipt.
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One month later they called from their collections department and cussed me out, called me a deadbeat for being deliquent. They never processed the payment, This was their fault not mine. I was ready to retry and pay them off again, but come to find out they hit me with $800 in fines and fees. That is when I quit trying to rationalize with them and stopped paying anything.
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Anyone dumb enough to send them hard earned $ deserves to loose it.
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I will gladly join a lawsuit against these scum bags and Dennis Alter.

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[QUOTE=Anonymous;514643]An agreement like that is still only as good as a court's willingness to accept it (although I highly recommend getting one).


the courts will accept this WRITTEN agreement between the two parties as payment satisfied.

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Called and spoke with a professional representative that was likely in the PA center. There were three options.
1. Balance discounted by 25% to make a LUMP SUM sum payoff. Paying 0.75 x the Balance.
2. FIXED period loan for 60 months at 9.99%. They discounted my balance due by $295 and then calculated the loan payments to amortize after 60 months. The total paid back at the end would be 1.33 times my slightly discounted balance. Basically paying the principal plus an additional 33% of the original loan amount over the 5 years.
3. Lower payment, but REVOLVING credit option at 3.99%, then 16.99% after the first year.
Knowing that revolving debt compound daily, this would not be a good option. Calculating this in a table, the loan would be paid off after 82 months. The total paid back would end up being 1.51 times the original balance, no small discount.
This would be a good option if you were paying it off in 12 monthly installments negating the effect of the lower payment. The interest at the lower rate over the first year would be a factor of 1.036.
It would obviously be best to pay off with a lump sum and save 0.25 + 0.036, about 28%.
Hopefully these numbers assist you in determining what they may do for your situation.
Please let me know if anyone was able to negotiate anything better.

Called and spoke with a professional representative that was likely in the PA center. There were three options.
1. Balance discounted by 25% to make a LUMP SUM sum payoff. Paying 0.75 x the Balance.

2. FIXED period loan for 60 months at 9.99%. They discounted my balance due by $295 and then calculated the loan payments to amortize after 60 months. The total paid back at the end would be 1.33 times my slightly discounted balance. Basically paying the principal plus an additional 33% of the original loan amount over the 5 years.

3. Lower payment, but REVOLVING credit option at 3.99%, then 16.99% after the first year.
Knowing that revolving debt compound daily, this would not be a good option. Calculating this in a table, the loan would be paid off after 82 months. The total paid back would end up being 1.51 times the original balance, no small discount.

This would be a good option if you were paying it off in 12 monthly installments negating the effect of the lower payment. The interest at the lower rate over the first year would be a factor of 1.036.

It would obviously be best to pay off with a lump sum and save 0.25 + 0.036, about 28%.

Hopefully these numbers assist you in determining what they may do for your situation.

The representative said that these rates would not change, even with missed payments.

If options II and III, credit file would read "Pays as Agreed"

Option I would read "Settled In Full"

Please let me know if anyone was able to negotiate anything better.

Sit tight. The next owner of the debt won't have more than a penny on the dollar invested, and won't be able to overcome even a half-assed defense in court.

to the one posting the number, there is a reason why no one responded to that, because its a violation of the forum rules. or we would be bombarded by solicitation of every settlement, consolidation, management company out there.

I too was offered a new rate from 29.99% down to 9.99% after they learned I was disputing many of the Fees, due date changes, and rate Hikes, that were not authorized per the original agreement. I told them that since almost every credit card company had raised rates and fees and that Advanta more the tripled and in some cases quadrupled their rates and monthly payment amounts that they were now the last on the list for any payment left over at the end of the month. To put it in simple terms, when the credit crunch snowballed account budgets were blown out of the water with no chance of many meeting their agreed payment amounts. When I asked The agent "Jack" (with heavy indian accent) what if his mortgage company set a letter saying they were tripling your mortgage payment just because the mortgage company needed the money would you be able to come up with the extra money each month, He said "NO" I said me either, Have a nice day you will get my payment on this months due date for what ever amount I have left over from the rest of the greedy credit compaines, He said they will look into an option for me at a later date. I simply said put the rate back to my original agreed amount at 7.99% as it was good enough for the last 3.5 years and remove all fees, and charges, and I may be able to send in the correct payment amount.

I have read Advanta will hire crooked debt collects and lawyers who will sue you in another State. They will slightly manipulate your name during legal service so you either way have no idea you are being sued nor in what State the hearing is taking place.

Is this true?