Lowering your credit card interest rates
Posted on November 9, 2007
Filed Under Advice, rates | Comments Off
You are going to be kicking yourself for not trying this sooner once you watch this story. If you have a phone and five minutes, you have the key to deflating your credit card interest rate.
Before you ring it up at the register, ring up your credit card company and ask for a lower rate. Most people don’t know you can lower your credit card interest rate simply by picking up the phone.
Here are the keys to lowering those rates.
First, if you know your account history and don’t pay late simply punch in the 1-800 number on the back and ask.
Next, it helps to know the average credit card rate is between 15 and 18 percent, but many consumers are paying much more. And if you are tell the representative you know you can get a better rate somewhere else.
Finally, being armed with your credit score (if it’s a good one) can give your extra muscle. Most consumers have a credit score in the 700 range, which is considered good.
If the card rep still says no, tell them you want to close the account. You don’t actually have to follow through, but by saying it, you will be transferred. You’ll be sent to an account retention department designed to keep you as a customer.
Credit card companies want to keep your business. They don’t want to cancel it because it costs a credit card company up to a couple hundred dollars to replace you as a customer. But don’t expect your credit card company to tell you this.
And not everyone who asks is going to get such dramatic results. Nevertheless, in a recent national survey, about 50 percent of those who make a call will have their interest rates lowered.
by Jay Ditzer.