Many of you have been asking the same question and it's probably on all of our minds: If interest rates are going down, why are my credit card rates going up? I got several notices in the mail from my credit card issuers with some very bad news. Their credit card rates are about to rise and in some case the rates are doubling, tripling, and then some!
Much of our audience has shared similar stories. But for every negative story, I receive a positive- a story of persistence with a happy ending, a lower rate. So, I decided to try some of the methods and report back to you with what worked and what didn't work. Perhaps with this information we can all lock in low rates, at least until the next billing cycle.
Out of the bunch of notices, I picked one at random- this card’s (we won’t name names) interest rate will climb to 15%, so much for my low APR card. I was curious how the company would justify this absurd change so I just called them. I spoke to a nice representative who kindly told me this was the lowest rate available at the time. I pulled out every trick in the book, telling them competitors were offering lower rates and explaining that it was low rates that attracted me to their company in the first place. No luck- she just repeated the same sentence as before. I thought of telling her she will hear from my lawyer but a) they haven’t done anything illegal and b) that line never works. So, as a last resort, I told her I’d like to close my account. Boy that got her attention. After a few moments on hold, she came back to say she can knock the rate down in half and even offered a six month extension to my current low interest rate.
So go ahead, give it a try, what have you got to lose except a high interest rate?
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