Just Ask: Getting a Lower Rate on Your Credit Card

Who would’ve thought that paying less interest on your credit card could be as simple as asking? I don’t know anyone who’s ever tried this, and I certainly haven’t, but according to Jeremy Vohwinkle at About’s Financial Planning site, paying less interest is often just a matter of requesting a lower rate.

We often forget that a credit card company actually wants our business, and any interest we pay, and will often accept a little bit less in interest payments rather than lose you completely as a customer. If you haven’t requested a rate drop before (or at least not recently), if you usually make your payments on time and especially if you tend to pay more than the minimum repayment, your chances of getting a rate reduction on your credit card are quite good.

If you ask the credit card company for a lower interest rate and they say no, you can also try the strategy of telling them you plan to do a balance transfer to another card company offering a lower rate. That might entice them to lower the rate then. And the best part is that you can’t really lose here - if they say no, that’s fine, you can try again in a few months, and it hasn’t cost you anything to ask. If they say yes you could save thousands of dollars in interest payments.