Tips to lower CC interest rates? Ideas?

[CrunchyDoula]

Anybody have any tips on trying to get cc interest rates and payments lowered? I would like to call my CC companies today and see what we can do in regard to payments and our interest rates.

TIA!

[llamalluv]

That's pretty much all you can do. If you have a decent credit score (over 680) it shouldn't be too difficult. If they refuse, you can either just leave the balances there, or surf the balances to other cards with lower rates.

[Porcelain Interior]

Here is what you say,

"Hi, I've received an offer for a lower rate with a different credit card company, but before I switch I wanted to offer you the chance to match or beat it since I would prefer to stay with your company- what's the lowest rate you can give me?"

I've only had them say no one time and it was the dreaded evil BOA.

[my2girlz]

I just called and asked them to lower the rate. Citibank was the easiest to work with. We had 4 or 5 of them at the time and they lowered it to 6.9% I didn't have excellent credit either. My gymboree card was the worst to work with.

[CrunchyDoula]

Geeze, why is it that I am so intimidated of these stupid companies! I am dreading calling them *Sigh*

[kirstenb]

Originally Posted by Crunchy Doula

Geeze, why is it that I am so intimidated of these stupid companies! I am dreading calling them *Sigh*

Just remember that you are giving them business! They want to keep you as a customer. If they say no, tell them that you will be using cards with more favorable rates.

[witchygrrl]

We had closed our accounts because we couldn't pay them. Then DH finally called them and said look, we want to pay these off and get rid of them. What can you do to help us?

They lowered our payments and our interest rates (2, 3.25, and 9% for the 3). We just paid off the 9% one this summer, and whatever extra we were paying the 9 is now added to the 3.25 one. We're still 11,000 in debt, but that's a heck of a lot better than the 21, 000 we were before!

Good luck!

[CrunchyDoula]

Originally Posted by witchygrrl

We had closed our accounts because we couldn't pay them. Then DH finally called them and said look, we want to pay these off and get rid of them. What can you do to help us?

They lowered our payments and our interest rates (2, 3.25, and 9% for the 3). We just paid off the 9% one this summer, and whatever extra we were paying the 9 is now added to the 3.25 one. We're still 11,000 in debt, but that's a heck of a lot better than the 21, 000 we were before!

Good luck!

That is great! I have wondered if we should do this. We have around $8,000 in CC debt but it feels like a ton! We aren't even able to make a dent in it right now because we can only pay the minimum payment due to circumstances. I know that once you close it it will stay on your record longer, but at this point I don't know how else we will be able to do it.

How did you close your accounts? Did you just call them and say you wanted them closed and need help with the interest rates to pay them off?

Thanks for your help!

[excitedtobeamom]

When we had cc's, we just paid them off for good, we always kept them at 0%. We would wait for the 0% offers in the mail and we made sure they had no balance transfer fees and no annual fees. We would transfer them for the 12 month or 15 month offer and then transfer again before the finance charges occured. We did this for way too long but when we went to pay them off it was SO nice that every penny went to the principal. I know the offers aren't around as much anymore but I am still getting some. Good luck! Just read the fine print.