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Skeptics surprised after negotiating lower credit card rate

nonothing

Well-known member
Fri Mar 7, 9:00 AM



WINNIPEG (CBC) - The experiment was hardly scientific, but the outcome should give hope to people struggling to pay off their credit card balance every month.


Ten shoppers were approached by the CBC at random at a Winnipeg mall and given a script to read to their credit card company, asking for a lower interest rate.


Six were promised a lower rate by identifying themselves and simply following the script: "I think I've been a good customer. I'd like to stay with you, but I really want you to lower the rate on my card. Can you help me?"


If the initial response was no, they asked to speak to a supervisor and make the same case again.


Shopper Leanne Goose seemed skeptical at first that haggling would work, but now says she's "very pleased" that her rate has gone from 18.9 per cent to 10.9 per cent.


"It hadn't even occurred to me to ask," she said. "When they sent the card and told me what my rate was, you just kind of of accept it and get on with your day."


Another participant, Rickey Peterson, said he almost never carries debt on his card. Still, he said he found it "pretty surprising" that his credit card company was willing to lower its rate to 11.5 per cent from 19.5 per cent.


It took Brad Blakley five minutes to lower his rate by nine per cent, shaving it by half from 18 per cent.


"I'm shocked. Thirty years of paying 18 per cent when I could have been getting nine per cent," he said.


David Stangeland, head of strategic financial management at the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, says the reality is, if you pay your bills, and have a reasonable credit rating, credit companies want to hold on to your business.


"You can deal. It's like buying anything else," he says. "You go to buy a car, you deal. When you need money, the cost of money is interest, so you can deal on the interest rate, too."
 

Rocky

Well-known member
I have tried this through the years and It sometimes works. I was remodeling a home four years ago and I charged everything I could on my Discover card. This is something I would normally never do. I was told If I did this I would accumulate free bonus air miles. My account was at about 9.0%. When my balance became $6500.00 the next billing cycle charged me 14.9%. When I called Discover Card Services, I ask why the % increase, did I do something wrong. The Discover Card assistant put me on hold and when he came back on the phone he told me I had not done anything wrong. My account was in perfect form. I ask why the increase ? He said BECAUSE WE CAN. I told him that I would pay off the card and close the account. He said SURE, I HEAR THAT ALL THE TIME. So I paid off and closed the account. Sense then I have received many offers to come back to Discover Card with lower that 9.0%. What is their thinking if any.
 
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