One Call, Save Thousands On Your Credit Card Bill

April 19, 2011
/ Make Money
/ By Jacob A Irwin

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Today’s guest post comes to us from Kevin. Kevin is a writer for www.debteye.org, a fellow Yakezie group participant. Debteye is a place where you can get unbiased opinions on anything related to personal finance. Kevin previously owned a debt settlement company prior to joining the DebtEye team. He is a certified debt specialist and also works with credit counselors across the nation.

One Call, Save Thousands On Your Credit Card Bill

Did you know that a one simple phone call to your creditor can potentially save you thousands of dollars? Creditors don’t have an incentive to lower your interest unless you ask for it. However, there are some basic criteria that we can assume that a borrower needs to have.

Typically, banks will work with cardholders who have a proven track history of timely payments and carry some sort of balance. This means that payments have never been more than 30 days late, and the payment amounts are MORE than the minimum required amount.

Banks don’t want to lose you if you’re a well-paying customer, and they’ll do everything they can to keep you on-board. Also, if your current interest rate is already pretty low (my guess would be 10% and under), you probably won’t have much of a chance getting them reduced.

So how exactly do you get your interest rate reduced?

The first step is to get a copy of your most recent credit card statement. Find out the EXACT interest rate you’re currently paying. Also, if you’ve been receiving “pre-approved” credit card mails in the past, I would look for those and keep it around (they will come in handy when negotiating your rate).

Next, find the customer service number on your statement or back of your credit card. This number can usually be found on the front, and it is usually listed on the back of your statement as well. When the customer service representative answers the call, tell them that you want to speak with someone who can help you lower your interest rate. After they connect you to the appropriate person, I would probably start off the conversation with something along this line:

You: “Hi my name is ______, I’m calling today because I’ve been a loyal cardholder with your bank for ____ years. I noticed I was paying ___% on my credit card, and I was hoping you could lower the interest rate. The reason I’m asking is because ______ (name of another credit card company) actually offered me 0% for 18 months if I transferred my balance over. As you can probably see, I’ve never missed a single payment with you guys. Is this something you can help me with?”

Most of the time, this will do the trick. Your creditor will lose you as a customer if you transfer your balance over. This means no more monthly interest payments for years! It’s important that you don’t advise the representative that you’re in some type of financial hardship.

While it is true that banks have an incentive to help struggling customers, banks typically have different types of program for hardship candidates. These programs will CLOSE your account and can impact your credit report.

If your lender does not cooperate with you, don’t give up. It may take a few months before they decide to reduce your interest rate. Be persistent and be patient!

How about you all? Have you tried to negotiate a lower interest rate on a credit card or other debt account? Were you successful? What resistance did you encounter?

Share your experiences by commenting below!

Jacob’s Thoughts – Listed below are my random thoughts as I was reading this article.

@ Minimum interest rate needed to bother asking for a reduced rate – I definitely agree with the idea that you probably shouldn’t bother asking for a reduced credit card interest rate if your APR is already around 10%. This is most likely the minimum that you can get anyway, so you’re already doing well for yourself and your bank account levels!
This same topic will actually be step 3 in my series of helping a friend get out of debt. In that post, I’ll build on several of the topics discussed here! Keep an eye out for that post, on the way soon!

***Photo courtesy of http://www.recessiontips.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/homermad-150×150.gif

About the Author Jacob A Irwin

Hi folks! My name is Jacob. I am the owner and operator of My Personal Finance Journey. I started this blog in January of 2010 and have enjoyed the journey ever since. Since finishing up graduate school in Virginia in 2014, I have been working in biopharmaceutical development in Colorado. You can read more about me and this site here. Please contact me if you have any questions!

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