5 Things Your Credit Card Company Doesn’t Want You to Know
Regardless of where you stand with your credit score or payment history, you should give these tips a shot; you can always claim you’re thinking of leaving them and see what happens. Often they will concede a little or else tell you what you have to do and for how long to qualify for whatever it is you’re asking them to do.1. Get your APR lowered
Did you know you can get your APR (annual percentage rate) lowered just by asking? As interest rates fluctuate nationally, they cause the APRs for credit card companies to change as well, often making better APRs available for certain customer categories. If there is a better APR available for somebody like you this month, they aren’t going to tell you about it. You need to call them and ask for it. Some companies will let you call as often as monthly while others will only check new rates for you quarterly. Either way, it doesn’t hurt to call.The better your credit score the better the chance is that your credit card company will grant you the new APR. Generally speaking if your credit score is above 700 you’ve got a really good chance, in fact if you have any interest rates over 12% you need to stop reading and call immediately and find out why you are not getting a better rate! A score in the 600’s gives you a 50-50 shot. Even a score under 600 is worth calling and talking to them about. You might get a better rate but not the best rate. For more on credit scores and improving yours check out our articles at our credit education center.
Another factor they'll consider is your history with them. Have you made late payments? Have you gone over your limit? These things can hurt your chances but not forever. If the answer is "yes" to either of these questions you should call your credit card company, request a lower APR and if they decline and cite one of these reasons you should ask them how long until they’ll consider it. Typically they’ll make you have a clean history for 12 months first. Before you call, be sure to have on hand some of the many low-rate credit card offers available right now. You may get them in the mail, or you can use our credit card search tool to find some to reference. You can refer to one or more of these offers when you call your credit card issuer's customer service line to negotiate. Your opening line can be something like, "I've been getting a lot of low-rate offers from other credit card companies and I was thinking about switching to one of them, but I wanted to see if I could get a better rate from your company first."
If you strike out with the customer service rep, you can ask to speak to a manager. If you’ve got a solid, on-time payment history and good credit scores, point that out. If you're a long-time customer or use the card heavily, mention that as well. Finally let them know if they can’t give you a better rate you’ll be transferring your balances to a lower rate card. The threat to close your account should be a hollow one. Even if you do decide to transfer your balance to another card, you typically should leave the old account open to avoid damaging your credit score. You particularly don't want to close a card with a high limit or one that you've had a long time.
2. Get rid of your annual fee, late charges or balance transfer fees
Fees help credit cards make extra money above and beyond the interest you pay. If you have a balance and a solid payment history you’ve got a good argument for getting fees waived or removed and it costs you nothing to try. Annual fees are typical for charge cards such as American Express where you aren’t charged interest for balances. It's clear why they do this. However it doesn’t make sense to have to pay an annual fee on a card which is also charging you interest on your balance. If you have a good history with your credit card company call them and ask them to remove the annual fee for the same reasons mentioned in the last tip, you’ll leave and take your balance with you! Use our credit card search tool to find cards with no annual fee to use as a reference or to move to.Balance transfers are generally free when you first sign up for a card then there are often charges for future transfers. This fact is often in the finest of print. On balance transfer fees you should call and explain that you won’t transfer a balance to them unless they waive the fee. They’re going to make money on interest for the transferred balance and so if you threaten to transfer it elsewhere they may waive the transfer fee before they lose out on the interest opportunity. Late fees, provided you don’t get charged with them often can be refunded. If you have a solid payment history and get a charge for a late fee, call your credit card company. Explain some extenuating circumstances; tell them you are very upset about the charge and that you’d like them to remove it for you. Quite often, they will (particularly if it's your first offense.)
3. Get your billing due date moved
If you find your credit card payments are due the same time as your rent or car payment or some other inconvenient time you can change it. All you need to do is call your credit card customer service number and request the new date. Changing your payment due date may also be a sneaky way to postpone a payment you’re going to have trouble making, for example if your payment is due on the 10th and you know you won’t get paid until the 15th, have your payment moved to the end of the month. You can’t do this often but in a bind it could save you a late fee.4. Increase your credit limit
There are many reasons why you might want your credit limit increased. You may just need more room for a large purchase or you might want an increase to help out your credit score. Some companies automatically review your account for credit increases but not all. You can call and request, sometimes this will result in a credit inquiry however and too many of those can also affect your credit score. Many credit card companies however, can increase your credit limit without pulling a credit report if you just ask. All you have to do is call and ask how much the credit card company can increase your credit limit without pulling your credit report and then tell them that you want them to do so.Increasing your credit limit can potentially increase your credit score as well. Part of your credit score calculation factors in the percentage of your available credit you are using. Credit agencies ideally prefer you’ve used no more than 25% of your available credit. If you owe $500 and your limit is $1000 you’re using 50% of your available credit. By increasing your limit to $2000 you drop this percentage down to 25% and increase your credit score without paying a dime.
5. Get those old late payments off your credit report
If you’ve been a good customer for a recent period of time but weren't always this timely, a lender might agree to simply erase that one late payment from your credit history. You usually have to make the request in writing but you can start by calling, your chances for a "goodwill adjustment" improve the better your record with the company (and the better your credit in general). But it can't hurt to ask.A longer-term solution for more-troubled accounts is to ask that they be "re-aged." If the account is still open, re-aging allows you to start the clock over. Say you're three months late on your credit card payments. If the creditor agrees to re-age your account, those three months are wiped out. Missed payments are forgiven. Late fees stop. You still owe the same amount of money, but you are no longer delinquent.
Here are the current guidelines, to be considered for re-aging:
- The borrower should demonstrate a renewed willingness and ability to pay
- The credit card account should be at least nine months old
- The borrower should have made at least three consecutive minimum monthly payments or the equivalent sum
- A creditor may re-age an account only once in a 12-month period and twice in a five-year period for open-ended accounts such as credit cards
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