Ring up your credit card companies and ask them to lower your interest rate

james32_uk

It's worked for me in the past and there's nothing to lose!

raq

james23_uk wrote:

It's worked for me in the past and there's nothing to lose!

Well done.

I think it all depends on how you manage your account. I rang a couple of months ago and they said no even though I have never been late on the card.

Paying it off soon so that'll be the only smile on my face.

rog2

raq wrote:

Well done.

I think it all depends on how you manage your account. I rang a couple of months ago and they said no even though I have never been late on the card.

Paying it off soon so that'll be the only smile on my face.

It worked for me, last year, with Barclaycard, when I told them that I was considering switching to a 0% card - they halved my rate immediately. Not much use to me now though. :rolleyes:

kevin_M

yeppers does work.. just called saying i wanted to close acc going for something with a better deal... they lowered my intrest rates

deliciosa

It did not work for me. HSBC, Marks and Spencer, amex and Capital one ALL said it is not within their power to lower it. I tried to argue, saying I got a friend who lowered it this way but they said no.

Lydia.42

Hi

It can work, some companies are more flexible than others.

If they say no, don't give up. Sometimes if you move the debt to another card, they will offer good deals to entice you back. I found this with my A & L card and my Halifac card. Just before the 0% ran out i called and asked if they would negotiate interest rate. Got a big fat NO!
Moved the balance to another card, and within a month had A & L offer me a further 0% for 6 months to get my business back.

If you are clearing debts, don't cancel all your cards as you clear them. You only have to add more credit searches to your record to get now ones.
Keeping one or two cleared cards in reserve allows you to transfer back to the old cards when they offer good deals again.
Don't forget to consider how much the balance transfer will cost you though, and most importantly DON'T spend on the cards again!!!!!
Cut those cards up!!!!! Check out my piccie - i made a lovely picture/feature out of my cards!!!! :rotfl:

deliciosa

yeah the only card that offers me reasonable balance transfer rate would be M&S but I did not have to negotiate for that, that's default... it made me quite sad that I could not bring down my interest rates. I was wondering that the info that you actually CAN might be wrong? All those customer advisors confirmed that they can not (not that they want not...)

confused...

Broken_hearted

Barclaycard says no to me everytime but they always credit my account with £20 for goodwill. Crapital one were the same till I shut the account, then suddenly they could knock it down to 12% from 26% TOO LATE account closed.

Donedoingdebt

I tried with BoS credit card some 6 months or so ago & they refused but said try again in 6 months. I've since found out that they credit check your file when they have such requests. At the time, I still had 4 defaults showing. The last one expired on 09/12/2007, so I'll try again in about a month or so.

deliciosa

Do they really credit check your file? does it leave a footprint??

Donedoingdebt

Not all of them. I assume if they do then it does leave a footprint, although I've not checked that one out yet. All of the info you'll need is in the "credit card shuffle" section under the credit card section on MSE.