Tip For Get the Best Rates on Your Credit Cards

If you could save some money on your credit card interest rates, would you? Of course you would!
It adds up over time - and more quickly than you may think.

If you are a good customer, you may be surprised how easy it is to get a better rate.

Pay on Time, But Not Everything.

The most desirable customers for the credit card companies are the ones who make a payment on time every month – but don’t pay off the whole balance. After all, running no balance every month means that you pay no interest, and the company makes no profit. If you keep up the pattern of running a relatively small balance each month, then the companies will start falling over themselves to offer you better interest rates.

Threaten to Go to Their Competitors.

Doesn’t it seem like every company is ready to offer you a credit card? That makes the credit card industry extremely competitive. Here’s how you can benefit: collect ads and offers for better rates and then pick up the phone and tell your credit card company all about it. Here’s how to open the conversation:

Them: "Hello, what can I do for you today?”
You: “Hi, I was calling to ask if there’s anything that you need to do to transfer my balance to this new card I’m getting?”
Them: “Well… may I ask what card that is?”
You: “Oh, I got the offer in the mail this morning. [ Tell them all about the great interest rates and everything. ]
Them: “And you’ve accepted that offer?”
You: “I’m just about to, yes.”
Them: “Well, hang on… we might be able to offer you a better rate on the card you’ve got…”

The trick is in getting the company to think you’re just another fool who responds blindly to advertising, and they’re in danger of losing you as a customer. Don’t whine about how you’re such a good customer – they already know what kind of customer you are. Now it’s their job to keep you a customer.

A fun alternative is to phone your current company, get an offer from them, and then phone around more and try to get them to beat it. Once it’s beaten, call your company back and let them know.

Drive a hard bargain, and be prepared to walk away (well, hang up). If you turn down their so-called ‘best offer’, hang up and wait half an hour, there’s a good chance that you’ll get a call offering you a better one!

It isn’t just on credit card companies that these tips get results. It works because it costs a company so much to get a new customer (the ‘cost of acquisition’), and so it’s cheaper for them to offer you a better deal, just to keep you.