How To Reduce Your Credit Card Interest Rates
With the prices of everything else going up these days, any money a family can save elsewhere comes in handy. One of the tried and true areas where many families can cut expenses is to reduce your credit card interest rates.
It’s no secret that credit card interest rates can go through the roof. I’ll also bet that many of you have no idea how much the interest rate on your credit card is.
Of course, the best way to reduce your credit card interest rate is to just pay them off and cut the card up. I’ve been without a credit card for two years now and I’m loving it. It was strange at first not having a credit card, but what was stranger was not receiving a statement every month. Now I can’t see myself ever having another credit card! My family does have one debit card, which has nearly all the benefits of a credit card should I find myself in an emergency.
The tips below are great. If you’d like more money saving tips, head on over and read Lynsdey‘s financial blog. It’s full of helpful tips and advice on family and personal finance.
How To Get The Credit Card Company To Reduce Your Interest Rate
The easiest and simplest way to get a credit card company to reduce your interest rate is to just call them and ask. Normally, you can find the toll free number on the back of the card or on your credit card statement.
Depending on which Customer Service rep you get, getting them to reduce your interest rate may be easy or difficult. If you’ve been paying your bill on time, you’ll find it a lot easier to deal with these people than if you’re habitually late in making your payment.
Here is a script I found that will work very well. The script is from Jean Chatzky.
“I have [name of card] with you and my interest rate is [X] percent. I received another offer in the mail from [other bank’s name] for [X] percent, but before I take it, I want to see if you can lower my interest rate instead.”
If the representative says they’re not authorized to do that, you say:
“Look, you and I both know that if I transfer my balance today, next week your bank is going to send me an offer to come back at an even lower rate. Why don’t you just save the bank the cost of that effort by giving me several points today?”
If the rep says it’s not possible because your credit card is at a fixed interest rate, you say:
“Actually, that doesn’t have anything to do with whether or not you have the ability to lower my interest rate. A fixed interest rate only means that my rate doesn’t vary with fluctuations in the prime rate. In fact, the bank can raise it on my account at any time by just giving me 15 days written notice. And the bank can, if it chooses, lower the rate today.”
If the rep still says they’re not authorized to do that, you say:
“I’d like to speak to your supervisor.”
Then speak to a supervisor and follow the above script again.
If the first Customer Service rep will not lower your interest rate, then the Supervisor will nearly always do it (unless you’ve been late or missed payments).
If your credit card company does not lower your interest rate on your credit card, then by all means shop around for a lower interest rate and switch the balance over to them. This takes a little time, but it can add up to huge savings over the long run.
Also remember that the Supervisor you speak to also has a Supervisor. But after talking to two Supervisor’s, you’re probably wasting more time than it’s worth to continually purse a rate reduction with this company. Your better off switching to another credit card company.
If you have a low, or no, balance on your credit card, you may find that it’s difficult to get the company to reduce your credit card interest also. If you haven’t guessed, credit card companies love customers with high balances! You’ll just have to be more persistent in your negotiations with the company to get your interest rate reduced.
This the most popular, and most successful way I’ve found on how to reduce your credit card interest rates. Other methods may work, but you’ll have more success with this one!
