Can you haggle with a CC Company?

stevemul

I have an MBNA platinum card with about 10k on it and a 13k limit.
It is not a problem, I have an excellent history with them and I intend to pay it off in a lump sum in about 12 months.
I have a couple of other cards with much smaller limits and small balances.
On the MSE soft search calculator, it shows 100% chance with MBNA and 95% with most others including those others I have. I have resisted applying to ones I do not have because I do not want just another card with a small limit on it.
What is my best option to reduce the payments for the next 12 months? Is it possible to phone MBNA and haggle by suggesting I'll do a balance transfer to another card?

chattychappy

The received wisdom is that CCs make money out of people paying standard rate interest. It's part of the business model that people take up promo offers and then can't afford to pay off the balance when the offer expires. They hope that people can't transfer the balance elsewhere so have to pay full rate balance. Because of this, they won't negotiate.

But despite this, there have been reports of people haggling over rates and getting a better deal - so it's worth a try. But unless you can get interest down to 3% a year, you're probably better off applying for a 0% BT card and doing a transfer (*).

[Unless "psycho" factors are a risk - ie by freeing up limit on your MBNA card, you will be tempted to spend more.]

grumbler

stevemul wrote: »

...
What is my best option to reduce the payments for the next 12 months? ...

Do you mean reducing the APR in the first place?

chattychappy wrote: »

...But despite this, there have been reports of people haggling over rates and getting a better deal - so it's worth a try.

IIRC, sometimes the result is the opposite - the credit limit cut to prevent further spending. So, it's really worth to chose the wording very cautiously when 'negotiating'.

King_Of_Fools

I do not know if it is the same for everybody but MBNA are constantly offering me 0% money transfers (with a 3% fee) or at 5% for the life of the balance.

If they offered these to you then maybe you could do four of these at £2.5k transferring the money to your bank account and then using that to repay the existing higher APR debt on the card.

chattychappy

grumbler wrote: »

IIRC, sometimes the result is the opposite - the credit limit cut to prevent further spending. So, it's really worth to chose the wording very cautiously when 'negotiating'.

Yes, the OP should be careful to say he is just looking for a better rate because he's had better rates elsewhere. Perhaps they'd like to match it.

He shouldn't say that he is struggling, in distress, might not be able to make the payments, looking for a payment plan etc.

grumbler

chattychappy wrote: »

...
He shouldn't say that he is struggling, in distress, might not be able to make the payments, looking for a payment plan etc.

I think it's not as simple as you say.
He must make sure that they don't even think/suspect that what you say is the reason behind his haggling.

See this recent post and the replies in that thread :

Cursed wrote: »

Oh gosh - you need to be VERY careful with this shuffle stuff. I had no problems with regularly paying back my credit card - the debt is high but I was managing it - however, the percentage rate bugged me and, based on similar advice to this article, I rang up Lloyds to see about getting the rate reduced. Their response, despite my having been a good customer for years, was to CLOSE my credit card account .... So, my efforts to take responsibility for my debt and better manage it by trying to bring down the percentage rate resulted in a) a closed account b) no reduction in the interest rate ... Please Martin, be more careful when you issue this kind of sweeping advice. Attempts to do this can be horribly counter-productive.

cheesetoast

Maybe ask them if they would switch you to the MBNA Low Rate Card at 7.4% APR? (https://www.mbna.co.uk/compare-credit-cards/low-rate-credit-cards/)

Or see if you can use a 0% money transfer to get money out to your current account, then use that same money to pay off some of the balance? (Then repeat as necessary)

planteria

i would start by saying 'Yes', but that the haggling is to be done at the outset of a deal.
it sounds as though you have a good deal with MBNA and my initial thought would be to leave that deal well alone, keep making the minimum payments, by DD, and keep building your history with them.
you don't say who your other cards are with. this would guide me as to how i would guide you to deal with them. but it may well be that the best thing to do with them is to pay them off and close them, as & when you can.