Advanta Management Trades Cash Bonuses for Stock.

Business Editors

SPRING HOUSE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2002

Advanta Corporation (NASDAQ:ADVNB; ADVNA) today announced that its management team has exchanged future cash bonuses for restricted shares of the Company's Class B Common Stock.

Pursuant to the terms of a unique compensation program which directly links individual compensation with Company stock performance, Company President Bill Rosoff will receive any targeted annual performance bonuses for 2002 through 2005 in restricted shares of Class B Common Stock. Other executive officers (within the meaning of Section 16 of the Securities and Exchange Act) were given the opportunity to exchange up to 100% of their targeted annual bonuses for performance years 2002 through 2005 for restricted Class B Common Stock. All five officers, including Chief Financial Officer Phil Browne and Advanta Small Business Services President Rosemary Cauchon, elected to exchange 100% of their targeted annual performance bonuses for Company stock.

An additional 120 members of Advanta's management team were also given the opportunity in December 2001 to exchange target bonuses for 2002 through 2005 for restricted shares of Class B Common Stock. Ninety percent elected to exchange some portion of their future target bonuses for stock. For the four year period 2002 through 2005, the management team acquired a total of $18.9 million worth of restricted shares of the Company's Class B Common Stock in lieu of future cash bonuses.

Under the terms of the program, the stock becomes unrestricted at the times and under the conditions the future performance-based bonuses would have been paid.

"We have aligned the interests of management with the creation of shareholder value as we now focus exclusively on the small business market. Management's elections followed our review and adjustment of compensation plans following the restructuring of the Company last year," said President, Bill Rosoff. "Advanta's management team has shown enormous confidence in the future performance of Advanta and its stock."

Advanta previously announced that its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Alter, has relinquished his entire salary and annual bonuses for 2002 through 2004 in exchange for options to purchase Class B shares. The options were priced at market on the dates of grant and will vest incrementally over the next three years, beginning in late February 2003.

Advanta is a highly focused financial services company which has been providing innovative financial solutions since 1951. Advanta leverages its first-class direct marketing and information based expertise to develop state-of-the-art data warehousing and statistical modeling tools that identify potential customers and new target markets. It has used these distinctive capabilities to become one of the nation's largest issuers of MasterCard business credit cards to small businesses. Learn more about Advanta at www.advanta.com.

This Press Release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected. The most significant among these risks and uncertainties are: (1) the Company's managed net interest margin; (2) competitive pressures; (3) political, social and/or general economic conditions that affect the level of new account acquisitions, customer spending, delinquencies and charge-offs; (4) factors affecting fluctuations in the number of accounts or loan balances; (5) interest rate fluctuations; (6) the level of expenses; (7) the timing of the securitizations of the Company's receivables; (8) factors affecting the value of investments held by the Company; (9) the effects of government regulation, including restrictions and limitations imposed by banking laws, regulators, examinations, and the agreements between the Company's bank subsidiaries and their regulators; (10) relationships with significant vendors and business partners; (11) the amount and cost of financing available to the Company; and (12) the impact of litigation. Additional risks that may affect the Company's future performance are detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.