LOWER Your Credit Card Rate

How can you reduce your debt faster? If you have credit cards that are double digit interest rates, ask for a lower rate.   Many authors are cashing-in on this well known secret that many people still don't know.  How do I call my credit card companies for a lower rate?

My husband and I did this a couple years ago, and we had tremendous success with it. The biggest successful tip that I would like to pass on, is to research your available options of obtaining other credit cards before you phone.  Know what your options are before you get on the line.  A caller who knows what they want is a caller informed.   In essence, you want to be able to have some back up plans before you make the phone call to the credit card company.  This will give you negotiating power with the representitive of the credit card company of very specific plans of moving to another company if you cannot get a reasonable low rate.  I believe that was the key to our success.  We had interest rates and specific companies we were ready to take our business to.

At first we did not have success with the first credit card we phoned. We did have pristine credit history of making our payments on time, for the term that we held the credit card. We did have a high balance, but we researched our options ahead of time incase we had to fall to plan B.  When we phoned, they said NO!.  In fact, they said no over and over again.  We talked to multiple people during that phone call and the answer was still no. So, we closed our account a few days later.  We ended up getting zero percent for 1 year, at a different lender and a very good rate after 1 year.  After that year was up, we phoned again asking for a rate reduction.  The answer was still no.   I was persistant in telling the representitive that I wanted to talk to the manager.  "The manager isn't in" she said.  I responded back, that there had to be a supervisor that I could talk to.  Everyone has a boss on the floor.  So, the manager got on the line, and we told him we were making double payments and wanted to just pay off the debt. We were hopeful of being able to do it in one more year.  Not mentioning any specific details of the rate we wanted, he put us on hold, and he came back on the line offering a rate better than we were expecting. So, it is a very successful strategy.  We also had no lates with our payments which helped tremendously.  That doesn't mean if you are late on your payments you have no negotiating power, try, try, try.

Some tricks of the trade:

-Know your bargaining power- Is your payment history great?  Is your credit score high?  By getting an annual free credit report, it will tell you each month's status with every bill you pay.

- Ask for the "Retention Department, instead of "Customer Service"

- Be sure that if you are going to threaten to leave, give them specifics.  I am sure they get tons of people calling in with " I am going to leave you"  so they plainly say no, gambling with the fact you may, but most of the time people really don't.  Do your research on all the available options of low interest rate credit cards, because if they do say no, you are ready to switch.  With credit cards, there is always tons of offeres where you can keep transfering your balance to something better.

- Get tough, and sound professional.  Tough means that you are armed with the information that you can follow up with your threats.  Why should they give you a better rate?  "I have perfect payment history"  "Capital One is offering me 0% for the first year and 8% after, I am ready to transfer my balance, and I wanted to know if you can beat that?  Don't ever insult and act negitive with the representitive.  A collected caller is a caller that is confident that they have plenty of options.

- I was watching another You tube video where a couple of ladies were calling in, negotiating 20% rates.  They settled with 18 which is really not great at all.  They may have settled because they didn't research what other credit cards are out there.  18% is quite high still.  You can do better than that.  A person who has to beg the representitive is an easy target from the companies point of view that they are going to settle for what ever they can get.

- No doesn't mean no right away.  Work with the person on the phone.  "Why is my credit card rate so high, when I am approved for other cards at much less?"  Now if you are going to say that, they are going to ask you to tell them the details.  So don't lie, tell them the names of the companies, but don't get too specific.  Remember, you want a lower rate or some competitive fixed rate.

- When you get your desired result, don't ask for the cake too.  "I also want no fees, and no late payments, and no annual fee, beat that or I am going to leave"

- Stay perfectly quiet when you are on hold.  Many phones that put you on hold can hear what you are saying, even though you cannot hear the rep.