Lowering your credit card interest rates
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. [...]
Asking for a Lower Credit Card Rate
Who are the best candidates to ask for a lower rate?
If you have a good payment history: have paid on-time, and stayed under your credit limit for 6-12 months.If your APR is over 12%. The average APR is around 14.9%.
Lower Your Credit Card Rates
The average interest rate on all existing credit card accounts in the U.S. is 14% and some are as high as 30%.If you have a balance, one financial expert told us that means you’re basically giving away a large percentage of your hard earned income.
Credit card disclosures may be improved
Alyce Larson of Yakima thinks credit card issuers shouldn’t be allowed to change the interest rates for whatever reason they choose, even if they include it in the fine print.
Mike Morris of Leavenworth wrote the Federal Reserve Board to require creditors to clearly identify monthly interest fees, the rate and the total interest fees paid [...]
Small is beautiful
American Express ranked highest among the 10 credit card issuers analyzed in the J.D. Power survey, followed by Discover. American Express received high marks for benefits, features and problem-solving; Discover earned good grades for rewards, billing and payments.
American Express and Discover also received high ratings in a recent reader survey conducted by Consumer Reports.
The J.D. Power study divides credit card users into two categories
Transactors: These are people who usually pay off their balance each month. These folks tend to be more satisfied with their credit cards than are card holders who carry a balance.
Because transactors don’t have to worry about interest rates, they tend to look for cards that provide the best rewards, Taylor says. That makes sense: [...]
Credit card rates to dip, slightly
Credit card debt will soon get a bit easier to handle — a very little bit — now that the Federal Reserve has lowered the benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage-point.
It’s not going to save the average card holder much money — certainly not enough to get your kid an iPod this holiday season. But [...]