The credit card companies will not automatically lower your rate when you qualify for a lower one – they make money off of your interest payments.
However, if you request a lower rate, they will often lower it to keep you as a customer.
Here are some different strategies to use when requesting lower interest rates on your credit cards.
- Call first and find out what the balance transfer rates available are for each of your cards. Write down the lowest one and use that as a bargaining chip for each of your next calls.
- Then call your card with the highest interest rate. Tell them that you like using their card, but can’t afford to keep using it at the current interest rate. Be polite but firm. Ask them for a lower interest rate. Tell them that you already have cards with lower rates and if they are not able to lower your rate, then you will have to stop using their card.
- After you have done this with your highest interest rate card, continue down the list with the rest of your cards. Always write down what the new interest rates are that they offer you.
- If you have trouble getting a lower interest rate, ask to speak to a supervisor. If that doesn’t work, hang up and call back. These calls are often handled by large call centers and you are likely to get a different representative the next time you call.
Here is an example of the results one person got when trying these techniques.
If you want to know how much you need to pay in order to have all of your credit card debt paid off within a certain amount of time, there are calculators online that can help you with this calculation.
These calculators take the amount of interest and minimum payments into account and will create a payment plan for you to follow to reach your goals.
You can also use these calculators if you know how much you are able to put towards credit cards each month (for example, if you know you have $400 to put towards credit cards each month), then you can find out how long it will take for you to pay off all of your credit card debt.