For current and past account holders....has anyone been successful in negotiating a better APR. 24.99% is crazy high for an average credit card IMO.
It's fairly high, but the rewards are quite good for an average credit card. I think this card is more geared towards people who are set on paying off their balance in full each month.
They are offering low aprs for 7 to 8 months for balance transfers and acct checks. Have not tried to negotiate a lower apr yet with them.
Thanks to you both. I don't have any balances to transfer so no incentive there. I realize average credit cards are usually not tied to a great deal of rewards (if any), but that would definitely be geared to a PIF each month type of consumer. I remember days of sub-primers offering rates like this!
Mindcrime, Remember the days of low APRs (life of the balance transfer) and high credit limits. I started with Citibank (my first CC) back in 97, my apr with 18.99 and my credit limit was $1k. In 2007 I had a balance transfer rate of 1.5% for life and my CL was $25k. Regular interest on the card was 7%. Of course if you were 1 day late on a payment you automatically lost the balance transfer APR. Those days are gone... at least for me.
I see some of these old signatures and drool, LOL. People with many 10's of thousands in lines, and some with hundreds of thousands!
Once you get your accounts established. The key to getting large credit lines are REGULAR Credit Line Increases! Remember this is a marathon not a race! 3 yrs ago i didn't have a credit line above $1,500. Now im pist when i get anything under $10,000. Use the accounts you have to staircase! When you get a new card have a GOAL. Target a lender find out what scores you need. Once you break the 10K threshold its go time! Keep utilization down! Pay balances in full and except 1 or 2 cards and keep that balance under 10% utl MAX.. I gained $29,000 in credit last month only taking one hard inquiry! but then again it had been a 2 yrs since i even put in a request .Find the cards that do CLI with soft inquires! If you have lenders that are a pain the butt! LIke Cap1 for instance call the executive office! SPeak to someone who has the power to give CLI. The people at the 800 #'s are just botton pushers! Seriously there are places you can call the underwriter directly. I have personally seen someone get a credit line for Walmart for 1K immediately call the underwriter and bump the limit to 10K before every having the card in their hand!
Mindcrime, what are your goals with the Barclay card? I personally don't care what intrest rates 90% of my cards are because i dont carry a balance! Why worry about an interest rate when you don't carry balances or at least have balances to transfer? If you want a card with low intrest rate why not find one with a low intrest rate. Ask yourself how low do u think that you can get them to go?? Is what your wanting reasonable? I have looked at peer lending but I never did it personally but what kind of credit score would someone have to have for you to loan your money? I know for myself that puts things into perspective when you look at it from the other side of the table.
Looking to add some revolving credit into the mix. Majority of my reports are made up of installment loans, and get the "you don't have enough of a credit mix" line when looking at my scores/reports. I qualify for 1.9 easily with installments but don't like hearing 24.9 on revolving even though I never carry balances on the couple I do have, still just more comfortable knowing if I ever had to carry for a bit, at least it's a reasonable rate. Speaking of underwriting, I'm waiting on a call back from them on a certain card I would love to get my hands on!
mech, Your suggestion worked with JCPenneys.. maybe just a store card but GE was offering no interest for 12 mos. I really don't need this, I've remodeled my kitchen without using CCs however these cards do come in handy freeing up $ to use elsewhere. In the past I've had over 4 CCs with over 20k CLs, 3 with Bank of America, however 2 were issued by BOA because of mergers..... Fleet, Direct Merchants Bank. I never really used those credit lines over 5K at a time, except for buying a car for $15k with a convenience check with 3% interest. Paid it off in less than 4 months with savings. I remember BOA calling and asking if I know how I would be able to pay the balance. HAHA. When the CC laws changed, I saw every single one of my CL's reduced, which to be honest unless you have tons of $, who needs those high CLs? Also IMO, unless you own property or have a high steady income and have a score in the mid 700's to 800's, you may not see those high CLs.
First off you don't have to have alot of money! I am a lowly mechanic in the real world.Credit scoring does not take into account your income, however when they issue credit limits there is a definite factor in there. but lets be serious I can tell you they issue big limits to old ladys on a fixed income. Sure I will side with you that owning property helps but I only have my house? Its not a big house, but what I do have is a steady payment history of on time payments with NO missed payments, I have a good assortment of morgage, revolving, installments loans.So I tell you this having so a good score depends on paying stuff off on time! I run about 8-10 credit cards use them regulary some of them alot less than others. I swap out them so i am not using the same card every month.I dont have to charge high amounts on them keeping my utilization LOW & I make a couple payments throughout the month on the ones I use.You dont have to spend a ton to have high credit limits but you do need a better score to have them. Lets be honest here would you loan alot of your money to a friend that had a BAD history of repaying money borrowed what about one that has a 600 with multi-baddies. missed and late payments or how about judgements? Would I loan them 10K Hell NO those are the same ones that have low limits.
