Ask:
I know that you are always told to call credit card companies and ask for lower intrest rates, but has anyone ever had any success at this? I know about 5 years ago when we were on the verge of bankruptcy, I called everyone we owed money and asked for help, explaining our situation and that we would declare bankruptcy if we could not deal. NO ONE would help me. The minute we filed bankruptcy, everyone wanted to deal on our intrest rates!! It was too late then. I had already paid my lawyer money to file!!!
Heck just a couple of months ago I called my Visa company to ask if I could change the due date from the 6th of the month to the 20th since I had way more bills to pay at the beginning of the month. Now I have never so much as been late with a payment ( I just thought it would work better for me on the 20th) They treated me like I was asking for the moon and would not change anything.
Do I just have the wrong companies? Have other people had more luck?
Answer:
I do not typically carry a balance on my cards so I have never called to ask for a lower rate. I have had success though in changing due dates and even in getting late charges removed. Several times over the years I've missed paying a bill on time, called the company and had the late charges completely taken off. I only get paid once a month so I only pay bills once a month so now I have all my bills timed to arrive right before I get paid.
I'm sorry your company wouldn't work with you. Perhaps if you threatened to leave them and said other companies would be glad to have your business and be paid on the 20th they would have responded. There are so many credit card companies out there you'd think they'd just be excited to have your business.
Answer:
I call all of our credit cards every 6 months and ask for a lower interest rate. They always seem more than happy to lower it, but usually give other alternatives also. Last time I called one company they gave me the option of a $20 credit on the next bill or a 0% interest rate for the next 3 months. Since we never carry a balance from month to month, we chose the credit option and left the interst rate the same.
Answer:
Some companies will just not negotiate...I have actually closed accounts (not a good thing to do for your credit report if you've been a long term customer) You just have to ask and then if they refuse ask to speak to a manager (insist on it). I have been told by reps, Oh there is nothing we can do, and then less than 5 minutes later have a manager lowering the interest rate! There is a cheat sheet on whatto say on Oprah.com that is very well written, It's under the debt diet.
Answer:
A while back on Oprah, she (or someone on her show, I forget) suggested calling your cc company to get the interest rate lowered. I called Discover, which is the only cc I have. They said they no longer do it over the phone, but they would mail me a form. The form was short, but I was glad I read the small print. It said something to the effect that the interest rate would be lowered at this time, but that they had the right to raise it again. It said something about if I signed the form, then I would accept whatever interest rate they would give me for the next 6 months. I just figured they'd put my interest rate higher than what I have it now, and we can't afford to risk it. I wondered if they got swamped with calls after that Oprah show. I haven't tried calling them recently, but am thinking I should.
Answer:
We have had a citibank card for about 20 years....we're old timers. I called recently because due to some large bills we had to carry a balance for a few months. They acted like they were doing me a huge favor lowering my rate from 14.9 to 14.2. Yippee, that saves me about 40 cents. I'm thrilled I went through 10 minutes of your voice mail system for that.
However, I have changed my due date, and explained that we get paid once per month, and basically told them (humorously) that if they didn't change my date, they probably wouldn't get any money out of me. They changed the date in a heartbeat.
Answer:
we do it about every two years. sometimes they say yes sometimes no. if they say no we transfer over the balance to our other card. then mirraciuosly(sp) they lower our rate.
I will be calling in Feb as I take over the bills. I think jan and dec are the worse times to call. think of it from their point of view. you just charged like crazy or want to and now you want them to help you. I call in feb as the hubbub has cooled down.
Just be polite. ask nicely and if they say no tell them you will be looking for a new cc company that values your patronage and loyalty.
allgirls
Answer:
Originally Posted by allgirls
we do it about every two years. sometimes they say yes sometimes no. if they say no we transfer over the balance to our other card. then mirraciuosly(sp) they lower our rate.
allgirls
This is exactly what happened to me with one of my cards. I had a balance, and asked if they would lower the rate since I have never been late or missed a payment, they said NOPE, don't do that...not even when I asked for a manager would the manager do it. I called another one of my cards that only had a small amount on it, and they lowered the rate a bit. So I transfered the amount to this credit card and then the first card lowered my rate, although, it wasn't lower than the one I transfered to.
I am going to pay some of it off with my taxes when I get them, and the rest is transfered to a card with 4.99 rate. Hopefully, I will be able to get it paid off within the next year.