What are some suggestions people have here for reducing one's interest rate on a credit card. I have always paid on time, in full, and used each of my cards every month. I have most of them for at least 6 months, so there is sufficient payment history. Any advice is appreciated.
I have 18 lines and right now only one is at a rate higher than 15%. It is no secret, I exercise my credit, I carry a balance whenever the rate is less than 10% and pay it in full whenever it goes above that. I make large payments whenever I make a payment, usually around 10% of the line. I let accounts sit idle a couple of months or until they either lower my rate or increase my limit. I have accumulated over $150,000 in lines this way. www.creditsense.com
All I can offer is my own experience with the following accounts: Target Visa: card was issued at 18.9%. I called when I got it and asked for a reduction. No joy. After using the card ~ $500 a month for two months and paying in full each month I called again. Standard customer service lowered my rate to 15.9%. I will try the same tactic again after three or four months to see if I can get the rate reduced to the next tier (12.9%). Providian: Standard customer service always insisted they didn't offer rates lower than 21.99% to ANYONE. Calls to their retention department resulted in a 16.9% rate. A recent call resulted in no joy because my account was already in a 9.9% promo period. Capital One: Original rate was 18.9%. A Planetfeedback letter resulted in a variable rate based on LIBOR. Last month my rate was 12.94%. Orchard/Household: Calls to customer service were answered with "Read the terms of your account. Your rate is going to be the same (18.9%) for as long as you have the account. It can never be changed." A call to their retention department after one year of account use resulted in a 15.9% rate. I am going to call them next month to see if I can get it lowered further. Nextcard: Any attempt to have my rate lowered was denied. Email, Planetfeedback, telephone cards -- all "no". Hope this helps.
I suspect that at least with some companies, they want to see you carrying a balance before they will lower the rate. This happened to me with citibank. I couldn't get a rate lower than 13-14% on a card that I paid in full each month. When I started to carry a balance, I called back and the rate was reduced to 8.9.
What's worked for me is to pay 'em off and not use the card for a couple of months and then ask for a rate decrease.
