simply asking ccard providers to lower your rates?

levista

Hi All,

I have suddenly found myself in a bit of a fix, my income has been decimated and the monthly min repayments from my debt on credit cards I cant afford to meet. A few months down the line I have every reasonable expectation i'll be back on my financial feet better (thankfully).

Just reading Martins book and he writes of asking the providers to lower your rates (whether by threatening to move balance or asking them to apr match).

Has anyone done this successfully? Does it work? How easy is it to negotiate with them?

Could I even possibly go one step further and tell them I am having financial diffs and ask them to freeze the apr totally (effectively giving me 0% interest)?

Any advice very much appreciated!

MSE_Martin

It very much does work, especially shifting balances. However asking them to freeze interest is very different. The first is playing with competitiveness, the second is admitting credit difficulties and wil lvery much hurt any future ability to gain credit and is best done via one of the debt counselling agencies. Im not saying you shouldn't do it - but be aware it has a very different impact

martin

xycom1

I paid off my Morgan Stanley card a few weeks ago and rang up to play with them today, asking the first customer services agent if they could offer me a lower BT rate than the standard offering (7.9% for 5 months, 2% fee).

They passed me over to someone in the 'BT department' who said they couldn't do anything. I asked to cancel the account and they passed me through to their retentions department. The lady offered me 5.5% for 5 months with no fee straight away when I said I would go elsewhere for one of the multitude of 0%s on offer. She also fed me some bull!!!! about extra credit applications affecting my credit record. :rotfl:

Said I would think about it and she said the offer would be available for 2 weeks. Asked them to review my credit limit - if they offer me a decent raise then I'll move some of my more expensive borrowing over.

gh38

levista wrote:

Hi All,

I have suddenly found myself in a bit of a fix, my income has been decimated and the monthly min repayments from my debt on credit cards I cant afford to meet. A few months down the line I have every reasonable expectation i'll be back on my financial feet better (thankfully).

Just reading Martins book and he writes of asking the providers to lower your rates (whether by threatening to move balance or asking them to apr match).

Has anyone done this successfully? Does it work? How easy is it to negotiate with them?

Could I even possibly go one step further and tell them I am having financial diffs and ask them to freeze the apr totally (effectively giving me 0% interest)?

Any advice very much appreciated!

Hi. I was paying 18.9% on my Barclaycard and after reading Martin's book decided to ring them and ask if they would reduce it. I didn't have any bargaining tools as such, I just asked if they would consider it. They immediately said yes and reduced it to 16.9%. So it's always worth asking.

vwman_3

I have spoken to Barclaycard and requested a lower ARP when they put it up from 22.9% to 27.95 in Novenber well surprise surprise they dropped it to 17.9% so yes give them a go you never know.

levista

thanks very much folks, you're a fantastic bunch

rockape_2

i like the idea of possibly reducing my apr from my barclaycard initial, but i went over my limit for about 24 hours (genuine mistake) but rectified it as soon as i noticed it. this was in november, do you think my chances are non existent?