In my church, the staff each have a credit card that is really used like a debit card. It makes online purchases and travel easier for all of us and we have never missed a month in paying the balance in full. Today, we received a letter telling us that on 30 May, our credit cards would no longer be accepted. Of course, receiving this letter on the 26th doesn't give us much time to act so tomorrow my goal is to find another company or bank to provide us with credit cards.
You can read the articles here and here be sure to read the comments by some of Advanta's customers. Here are some excerpts from the article:
"In a last-ditch bid to survive the nation's economic downturn, Advanta Corp. is closing its small-business customers' credit cards to new charges after June 10, the Montgomery County company said yesterday.
The unprecedented move, which will affect nearly one million accounts with the Spring House firm, was designed to preserve the capital Advanta needs to absorb losses on loans to small-business owners, who often borrow heavily and typically bear the brunt of economic downturns, the company said."
"Advanta, the nation's 11th-largest credit-card company, is unusual in that it does not offer personal credit cards.
That is a factor in Advanta's troubles, Robertson said, because Advanta's small-business customers are apparently working harder to keep their payments up to date on their personal accounts at other companies and leaving Advanta "holding the bag" on their business accounts. If one company supplies both credit cards, the customer has less wiggle room.
Robertson said Advanta's percentage of loans written off as uncollectible, at 20 percent on March 31, exceeded subprime consumer accounts at other lenders. "This is a life-threatening charge-off level," he said."
So tomorrow, I contact the few businesses that automatically deduct our payments and make arrangements for checks until we get our new credit cards. I'm glad I just got in a new order of checks.
0 comments:
Post a Comment