Ok, here's my story...

I was orginally a Providian customer before Wamu took over. I've had two cards for about 8 years now. Good payment history. Everything was fine until Wamu started increasing my rates almost two years ago. One of the cards was 14% - and no, this was not an introductory rate from Providian. This was FIXED for many years. It went up to 36% - no kidding. That's over a hundred percent increase! The other card had a much higher balance and went up an additional 16% to make it 36% as well. I've paid off the smaller card all but $150.00 and unfortunatley I still owe $7,000 on the big one. I owed almost $9,000 just last month - I'm seriously paying it off. My interest rates for the last 6 months have been running 28% - 36% on both cards.

Anyway, last month I made a huge payment on the bigger one. I decided that if I paid it down, my credit score should go up, and thus decrease my interest. Well, when I went to obtain my FICO score from my online account on 12/14/08, it still had not been updated since 11/01/08. My credit score was 620 in November. I decided to call them and ask why it hadn't been updated. The rep told me that they had not received the scores from Trans Union yet and apologized for the inconvenience. I confirmed with her that if my score goes up, my interest rate will go down. She said "Yes".
When I came home from work today, I decided to check again. Low and behold, it was updated. The problem is that it's saying it was updated on 12/01/08 - wrong. And, my score is still exactly 620!!!! I couldn't believe my eyes!!!! Another thing - these are the only two credit cards that I own. I do not have a car or mortgage payment and my revolving balances are still saying $9,000 - $9,999, this is the SAME as last month.

I realize that this is my debt and I have to pay it off, I take full responsibility. BUT, I know this bank is ripping so many people off. It really saddens me how much I have gone through the last two years. I know there are countless others.....
I have to say....I NEVER had any problems with Providian.