When a credit card company is charging you high interest I recommend the following.

Try to call them and ask for their customer retention department. Tell them you are considering transferring your balance to another card and ask if they can drop your rate. It works. Try it after establishing at least a 6 month payment history if you can.

Also avoid exceeding 30% of your credit limit on the cards you have as this can adversely affect your credit rating.

Good tip. I've also noticed that some cards will offer rate reduction without having to threaten taking your business elsewhere.

Just look over your monthly statement and there may be a small note on there with a number to call to request rate improvement and/or a higher limit.

Yes they do but often times they will pull a credit report and base it off your credit situation. When you threaten to leave sometimes they do not do that. Be sure to ask.

__________________
Greg Phillips
Manager
Fairfield Mortgage Company
"I can lend in 50 states"
Home Blog Forums

wow i am going to try this

Let us know your findings?

lol :-)

__________________
Greg Phillips
Manager
Fairfield Mortgage Company
"I can lend in 50 states"
Home Blog Forums

Good tip, but be careful with the representative you get. Your account does have to qualify for retention in order to be transfered. If it doesn't qualify, the representative that you speak to won't be able to transfer you and will ultimately end up closing your account if you're not careful.

Some reps just don't care either, they won't all transfer you to retention even if you do qualify. Just a thought on my part working as a customer service rep in the industry.

S. Sonderegger
Credit Card Customer Care

Thanks for the tip, CS Rep. That's great insider info.