Is there any way to reduce a high APR on a credit card?
I’m sad to say that I’ve got a credit card with an extremely high APR (27% :eek: ). Can I just call up the card company and ask them to reduce it? Is there any process that I culd go through to reduce it? I’ve tried transferring some of the balence to a lower-rate card, but there’s still a good bit of balence left on the card.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Yep, you can call their customer service line and ask them to offer you a lower rate. I’ve done it many times on my MBNA Mastercards. They usually tell me “this is the lowest rate we offer right now.” Currently I think it’s 9.9%.
The bank/company that issues the card might also have a card that offers a lower “lowest rate” than you currently have and might be willing to sign you up for that card with the lower rate and transfer your balance.
Although…if you’re the person from the thread I read this morning about blowing off a maxed-out $1000 card for a few years and accumulating $500 in overage fees…well, I am not sure if they’ll be so nice to you as my card company is to me. ::shrug::
Still, doesn’t hurt to try.
Thankfully, that was not me.
Thanks for the especially useful advice, since my card is with MBNA as well.
You normally can transfer a balance from one card to another, but if you read the fine print this type of transaction counts as a cash advance, which is treated somewhat differently. (For one thing, interest on it starts accumulating right away, not just at the end of the month).
I’d recommend getting a lower interest rate loan from your bank to pay it off, but I imagine if you’re asking this your bank has probably said no.
It was me, and I blew it off for a few months - three or four, not years.