What is the best approach to make when it comes to increasing your credit line/lowering your interest rate with your creditors? How much of a factor does time play in a creditor's willingness to adjust those factors? Is any one company more flexible than another when it comes to adjusting terms on an account? Everyone, let me know your opinions and share all your information.
I am always looking for better deals and call periodically to get better terms. Now that the fed has cut interest rates, I want my piece of the pie. MBNA: I opened the account 15 months ago with a 5K limit. It's now 16.3K. The APR has gone down from 17.99 to 11.99. I don't think I can get it much lower. Although this rate seems a little high to me, what offets it is the constant flow of short-term promotional offers that flood my mailbox. I am carrying a balance now at 1.7. In short, this is not the best company for a low "go to" rate but it is one of the best for generous credit line increases. I suspect that carrying a balance yields higher increases. Coupled with that, it is important to pay the account down to zero periodically and never take them up on the offer of a payment holiday. I suspect but cannot prove that this may have negative effect on the cardholder besides having to pay more in finance charges. Citibank: I opened a Plat Select at 15.4 abut 16 months ago. The initial credit line was 6K. Currently it is 8.4K. The current APR is 11.9 but I'm carrying a balance at 5.9. Not particularly generous about increases obviously. Stubbornly refuses to come off the 11.9 for me. Others have had more success. I suspect that I'm having trouble because I currently have a high balance. Best to use the backdoor approach by applying for a second card and combining to get a maximum boost to the credit line. ATT Universal: A Citibank subsidiary. Opened this account 14 months ago with a CL of 5K and a generous cash advance limit of $100. Since then, the line has increased to 7.7K and the APR which originally was 14.9 was reduced to 7.9 at my request. Citibank Aadvantage: This card generally seems to come with a higher CL than the Plat. I started at 10.5 about 13 months ago. The APR was an ugly 19.4. Now it's at 16.5K and the APR was reduced at my request to 8.9. Nextcard: Used to give 2K automatic increases every six months but due to the recent financial troubles, Nextcard no longer does this. You have to ask. From what I've read on this board, alot of people with good credit have been denied increases so I haven't tested the waters. The APR is a decent 9.99. Generally, I think the formula of carrying a balance, making large payments and then zeroing out accounts periodically works best for CL increases and APR reductions with most companies.
daveberk... Make NEXT CARD your "FIRST" 9.99% to pay off in full and use once per month for gas... I'm still holding out to see who buys them...
George-- We can always count on you to put in a good word for Nextcard! It's funny because when I got this card (at prime +0.49) I thought I had died and gone to credit card heaven. Since then, they changed the rate to 9.99 fixed. Now they are charging the highest rate of any card I have on which I carry a balance so it would make sense to pay it off more quickly. One thing that disturbs me is that using the card away from home triggers a call from Nextcard's supersensitive fraud department. Then I have to call to get my account unblocked. This happened last month in Nevada. A few months before that I got declined while trying to purchase a $13 train ticket from a machine in New Jersey. If I had called then I would have missed the train so I used a different card. Both times I had thousands in available credit. I guess I'll try calling before I travel to let them know where I'll be and see if that works. .
I HAD THE NEXT CARD PRIME + ALSO...but 9.99% was ok... Last month I sent $900+ (NEXT CARD) This month I'm sending $900+ (NEXT CARD) When I get my CITIBANK PLATINUM SELECT if they give me a 0.00% BT for 9 months...NEXT CARD IS PAID IN FULL...but NOT closed... I set up AT&T @ HOME to charge NEXT CARD the bill every month...NOTHING ELSE... Just waiting to see what happens with them (NEXT CARD)... WARNING...NEXT CARD WILL "FREEZE" YOUR ACCOUNT ALSO, IF YOU OVER PAY YOUR BILL!!!
