Providian - Late Statements

I have had a Providian Platinum card for a couple years at a 7.9% "for life" rate. After approximately 6 months my monthly statements would show up anywhere from the 20th of the month up to the 7th of the following month. Every month I called Providian and asked why my statements were not being mailed on a certain date and why my due date would change on a regular basis. I got some long winded speech about the US Mail service, how my mailing and due dates could fluctuate up to 10 days difference each month, etc., etc.

My favorite, however, was today. It is the 6th of April and my statement was mailed (so they say) on March 13th. I was told to make a phone payment or I would be charged a late charge tomorrow so I made the phone payment today and asked for the head of this particular department. She encouraged me to pay by phone every month to "avoid the problems I seemed to be having with my post office" and that "Providian Bank is audited on a regular basis and that they have millions of customers and there have been no complaints of any statement problems".

I inquired if, indeed, I was the first of their millions of customers to have a complaint about this and she replied "yes." Oh, please! I have had A+ credit with over 50 credit grantors over the past 30 years, never missed a payment and never been late with a payment. All of a sudden I find myself receiving late statements from Providian with virtually no time to get a payment in on time (i.e. statement supposedly mailed from Providian on 2/14 and received by me on 3/2-payment due on 3/5).

I keep calling and now their big push is for their pay by phone option. The supervisor says "we would have no motivation to send statements late to our customers or post payments late". I suggested that perhaps Providian stood to gain a great deal of money in late fees and finance charges by employing this practice. Again she stated that this is evidently a problem with the US Mail and that I should allow at least 10 days for a bill to reach me. All my other creditors send their bills to me by regular mail which I receive within 3-4 days. I have no idea why Providian's bills would take up to 21 days.

My last rant is that EVERY time I have called, the representative or supervisor cuts me off in mid-sentence and talks over me. I finally asked this last person to please stop talking and listen to what I had to say. Good luck on that, huh? I believe that Providian is using the old "Sears and Roebuck" trick of mailing late and posting late to inflate their profit from consumers.

I did not receive a Providian Visa statement for the month of December 1999. I did not notice it and received a statement December 30, 1999 showing I was late on my December payment and I owed finance and late charges for Dec. as well as current charges due Jan. 8, 2000. The statement closing date was 12/14/99.

I received the statement 16 days after posting. I mailed a payment Jan 5 2000 which after talking to a customer service rep found out was not posted until Jan 21 2000. This caused my acount to be closed because it had not been received by the next statement closing date of Jan 14 2000.

Even if I had mailed a payment the same day I received the payment notice it would not have been posted until the day after the statement closing. They have again imposed a late fee.

I contacted a Providian customer service rep and after some difficulty was given a supervisor who ageed to reinstate my account and remove any negitive credit information. I am still out the late fee for Dec 1999 and Jan 2000.

I paid off the balance on my providian Platinum Visa in full, and I was sent a balance of $37.31 ($29.00 late charge and $8.31 finance charge). My payment was not late. This late fee business has been chronic. Practically every month, I am charged a late fee and finance charges on it, even though my payment is mailed (usually) 5-7 days before due. On several occasions, I received the bill the day before it was due. No brainer there.

On several occasions I received my credit card statement/bill only a week or less before it was due. This did not allow me to pay in time.

This is my first credit card and I feel as if Providian has take advantage of that. They make their reqiurements so difficult to keep up with. As a result I've been charged late fees that seem rather unfair. They also have poor customer service. I signed with Providian because they touted their card as an excellent way to build credit, but now I feel that their only interst is to squeeze thier customers for all they're worth. I'm now worried about my future. Has Providian wrecked my credit?