Approaching Credit Card companies re lowering APR

PennyRich

Hi

Not sure if this is a reasonable way forward or just another hairbrained scheme.

My partner and I have several credit cards between us, some frozen at a reasonable APR but we have 5 (not frozen) where the APR is 29.95% :eek:. With these we are finding it near impossible to pay anything but the minimum and that is all going on the interest.

Would it be an idea to approach these lenders and request a drop in the APR, we've held the accounts for several years and always kept up with the payments. If so, is there anyone here who could give me an idea how to go about approaching them.

Thanks for reading.

Penny

nikkickchloe

Not sure on this one, but watching with baited breath for responses x

an9i77

Loyalty doesn't pay, you could instead threaten to leave (and hope they don't call your bluff - if you can't transfer to lower deals as I'm assuming is the case) and hope they lower the rates to retain you. Doesn't matter how long you have been with them, your high interest rates are paying for the 0% deals they use to lure new customers. It's all about attraction and retention, if they don't think you have any intention of leaving they have no incentive not to charge you the highest APR they can get away with

PennyRich

Thanks an9i77, I was afraid that might be the problem. I'm not sure if we can get any lower deals, according to a fairly recent credit check we don't have a bad credit record but my partner has been turned down for a card (Tesco) a few years ago and we were turned down for a mortgage (marine) last year and although they wouldn't give us an official reason, they did suggest that it was the amount of our debt that was the stumbling block. Over 8 cards, a loan and a chargecard we owe between us £50,000. We are both self employed and only rent at the moment, so worried that we would not be accepted for another card where we could shift some of the debt to.

Jinx

If you ask your creditors to drop the interest and they do, be wary that they may mark your credit record AP (arrangement to pay). This wouldnt be good if you then wanted to apply for a new card as you arent technically meeting the contract. It might be fine, but worth asking the question while you ask for the interest freeze?

PennyRich

Thanks for that Jinx, yes I don't want anything to damage our credit record even more than the amount of debt already is. We'd really like to get a mortgage eventually, which is why we're trying to get rid of some of the debt without going down the routes which will cause damage.

One other thought is, has anyone approached a credit card company of a card that has previously been frozen and asked to re-open and balance transfer onto it?

We've got a couple of these, namely Egg and Capital One, which we've managed to pay off quite a bit at the frozen rate and there is now a (would be) available balance on.

Jinx, just seen your sig, well done on your Debt Free Day, that's very impressive.

Jinx

Thanks Pennyrich, its a long slog and I didnt stay on the side of the angels like you, I got every default going....... heyho it couldnt be done differently at the time. Good luck with your journey