Get a Lower Rate on Your Credit Card

Yesterday I posted about some pitfalls of transferring credit card balances and ended by suggesting that negotiating for a lower rate with your current card company may be your best bet.  I realized there are some tricks to that as well, and figured I’d go ahead and post a few tip here…

1.  Make your payments on time
Youre credit card company will be morel ikely to deal with you if you have a good payment history with them.  You are one of their best customers–you carry a balance AND you pay on time.  What more could they ask for?  They don’t want to lose you!

2.  Check your credit score
This will at least let you know where you stand going in.  Your credit score is going to factor in to their decision, and if it’s good, you need to know this so you can use it for bargaining.  There are several places that allow you to check your credit score for free, just make sure you discontinue the service when you aren’t using it anymore.

3.  Read up on other promotions
Know what types of promotions their competitors are running–make sure you know the FIXED rate of the competing offer.  Make sure you let them know you are happy with them, but also are interested in saving some money.

If you have a good history and credit score, you can usually negotiate a lower rate.  If you want to get out of debt, this is a much preferred tactic to transferring balances.  It also is a lot faster

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