How to Get a Lower Rate On Your Credit Card

In this article I explain how to ask for, and likely recieve a decrease in your interest rate.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Confirmation of your income from all sources.
• Your credit report from Equifax or another source of your payment history.
• Todays rates from other credit card companies.

1. Gather all pertinent paperwork. If you have been with the company for less than six months, you might expect an automatic declination of your request. Credit companies like to have a payment history to refer to when dealing with clients.

2. Have a notepad ready for phone numbers and names of those you will be speaking to. Address the representative by name, asking permission to use their first name.

3. Explain your hesitation to leave their company with its fine service to date, but as their competition is offering lower interest rates on balances (and often offering periods of low interest for buying out other debtloads) you feel it necessary to take your business to the other company.

4. At this point they may want to check your payment history; be patient, and very polite. If they decline upon returning, ask the reason why. If they have none, tell them that unless they can offer you a lower rate(suggest a number one point lower than their competitors)

Tips & Warnings

• Beware of missing or late payments. Credit companies seriously frown upon this. It is advisable to arrange pre-authorized debits from your checking account, and to make certain you set up the debit five to seven days before the payment is due to be drawn from your account.
• Always keep a generous balance available in your checking account to avoid missing payments. You can set up an overdraft on your account, but charges are usually far greater than you would pay on your credit card, and they will take a fee for returning any cheques as well.