Tag: advanta

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Advanta Shutting Down Credit Card

For those who have an Advanta credit card, you might want to switch to a new card after June 10th, 2009 May 30th, 2009. Apparently they’re shutting their credit card business. According to their press release:

Since the securitizations will not be permitted to fund new receivables after June 10, the Company will shut down all credit card accounts to future use at that time. Neither Advanta Bank Corp. nor any other Advanta-related entity will fund activity on its balance sheet from the accounts. Therefore, the Company will not take any off-balance sheet receivables onto its balance sheet. Shutting down the accounts will not accelerate payments required from cardholders on existing balances.

Here’s a few other articles/threads that may interest you:

To my understanding, you won’t be able to make any new charges after 6/10 5/30, but you do NOT have to pay off your existing balance. Whatever terms/rates still apply for those who do carry a balance on the card.

If you’re looking for a replacement card for your business, I suggest the American Express SimplyCash Card (which I’ve blogged about here). Unfortunately, the cash back have since decreased a bit.

If you’re looking for a Visa/MasterCard, you may want to check out the Chase Freedom For Business. You get 3% back on the top 5 categories you purchase in and you even get a $50 sign up bonus. However, I believe there’s an annual cap on how many points you can accrue. Hope this helps!

Update: Looks like they bumped up the close date to 5/30. Here’s the copy of the email I just received:

Dear Customer,

Your Advanta Business Card account is funded by an independent trust which owns the balances you owe on your account and provides funding for new transactions. We expect the trust to stop funding activity on our accounts. The trust also restricts our flexibility to fund activity on your account. Unfortunately, as a result, effective May 30th all Advanta Business Credit Card accounts, including your account, will be closed.

This means that you will not be able to use your card or account for new transactions, including purchases, checks and balance transfers beginning on May 30th. We understand that you may have written checks on your account before May 30th and we will make every effort to honor those checks that are presented to us for payment by June 3rd. If you use your Advanta card to make automatic recurring bill payments, you will need to make alternative arrangements for those payments promptly.

It is important to understand that you are not required to pay your entire balance at this time. You may continue to pay down your account balance over time, as allowed under your Advanta Business Card Agreement.

You will not lose the rewards that you have earned. If you participate in a Cash Back program, you will receive a check for the amount of any accrued rewards more than $1.00 as long as you make the required minimum payments and your account remains in good standing. If you participate in a Business Rewards program, you will have at least 60 days to redeem your points as long as you make the required minimum payments and your account remains in good standing.

We deeply regret the impact this action will have on your business and very much wish it was not necessary.

We are committed to assist you through this process. Additional information will be available at www.advanta.com/notice. If you have any other questions or concerns, or if we can assist you in any other way, please feel free to contact our Customer Service Center. You can email us your questions 24 hours a day at www.advanta.com/secure or call us toll free at (800) 705-7255, Monday – Friday 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and Saturday 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Eastern Time.

Sincerely,
John F. Moore
President, Advanta Bank Corp.

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American Express – SimplyCash Business Card – 5% Cash Back on Costco Gas

I’ve mentioned this card before, but didn’t really have a reason to get it before since I had my Advanta card. However, due to the fact that Advanta has changed its term in limiting the amount of rewards you can get per year, the Advanta card has basically become useless to me:

Cash Back rewards are also earned on Bonus Qualifying purchases, which include purchases in the following categories: “gasoline and diesel fuel,” “computers, computer supplies, electronics and office supplies,” “online advertising services,” and “utilities and telecommunications.” Cash Back rewards on Bonus Qualifying purchases are earned as follows: 5% on up to $1,200 in annual purchases; 1% on purchases in excess of $1,200.

That means the 5% rewards bracket only adds up to $60 in rewards a year and everything after that you only receive 1%. The nice thing about the Advanta card is the fact it’s a Mastercard so it’s accepted practically everywhere (Costco being the main retailer I purchase from that doesn’t accept either Visa or Mastercard). I haven’t used my Advanta card in quite some time, but it’s still associated with my utilities (Comcast Cable and High Speed Internet and garbage collection). Otherwise, I’ve basically stopped using it on office supplies and electronics.

Anyway, I was reading some thread about Costco gas today and someone had asked if the Executive membership gets 2% cash back on gas also and I told them that the terms specifically exclude gas from the extra 2% back. However that got me thinking. I’m currently only getting 1% cash back on Costco gas with my American Express Costco TrueEarnings card. Costco gas accepts any type of American Express credit card and SimplyCash has 5% cash back on gas, office supplies and wireless services with no annual cash back limit. Of course American Express is also not widely accepted, but all the gas stations, office supplies stores, and wireless services that I use all accept American Express.

Cash Rebate: There is no limit to the amount of cash rewards you can earn. You will receive the Rebate in the form of a credit to your Account (net of credits for purchases). The credit will appear on the second billing statement following the billing statement in which the qualifying Purchase(s) appeared, based on the following structure: You will receive a Rebate of 5% for purchases of wireless telephone services, automobile gasoline(effective December 01, 2007, any individual Purchase transaction in excess of 75 gallons or equivalent dollar value will not be deemed to be a Purchase of automobile gasoline), and office supplies and equipment not purchased at warehouse clubs, superstores or supermarkets (“5% Purchase(s)”). You will receive a Rebate of 1% for all other purchases. To receive the Rebate, your account must be active and in good standing.

Important: You will receive a 5% Rebate only if the merchant submits the Charge for your 5% Purchase under the appropriate merchant code, industry code and required service or product identifier established by us with/for the merchant. For example, if a general merchandise retailer sells office supplies, and the retailer processes your Card transaction as a general merchandise charge instead of an office supply charge, you will receive a Rebate of 1%, not a Rebate of 5%. You will not receive a Rebate for balances transferred from other accounts, purchases of American Express Travelers Cheques or American Express Gift Cheques, fees, Finance Charges, Cash Advances and similar means of accessing your Card Account. Additional terms and conditions apply.

Therefore I’ve decided to apply for one. I’m hoping Costco gas counts as gas and not a regular Costco purchase since those only get 1% cash back. Looking at my previous statements, they do distinguish:

  • COSTCO GAS #00110 94ISSAQUAH WA
  • COSTCO WHSE #00110 9ISSAQUAH WA

If you’re interested, you should apply for the American Express SimplyCash Business Card.