Lower your existing Credit Card rate instead of changing

mattbell

Hi,

I had about £4500 on my Halifax One card. With a little bit of money in my savings I paid off £1500 leaving me with a balance of £3k. After reading through the MSE balance transfer section I was considering changing it to a 0% or a cheap life of balance card (citi bank 5.8%) to help me pay it off over the next couple of years. However before deciding which card to go with I thought I would ring my exsiting Halifax Card people first to see if there was anything they could do with my current rates.

This is something I had done a couple of years ago and at the time I had managed to reduce my rate down to 9.9% from around 15% which was enough to prompt me to stay.

So I called them up and told them I was looking to close down my account and transfer my balance to a cheaper 'life of balance' card with Citi Bank and was calling to see if there was anything they could do first. The first lady I spoke to was very pleasent but said that it was unlikley as my rate was already low, but then agreed to transfer me to customer retention. The lady in customer retention was also very nice and upon hearing my story agreed to lower my rate from 9.9% down to 6.95% - a third off!
:j

Ok so this isn't quite as low as 5.8% with Citibank its close enough to save me the hassle and credit checks ascoiated with changing providers.

I heartliy reccomment ALL OF YOU call your Credit Card company and try the same thing even if you aren't considering a change.

Matt :T