I was able to get the interest rate down on all my credit cards by calling them and asking. It sound so simple. It is, it just takes time. If I had another credit card that was making an offer that I could tell them about then it gave me more leverage. Sometimes I had to keep asking for the next person up to talk to. You have to have the time to wait, but it is worth it. It is like working, you get payed to wait on the the phone and ask if they can lower your interest rate.
I had one incident that the interest rate had gone way up because my ex-spouse had called and closed it from a revolving credit line at 10% rate to a fixed rate of 31%. I was going from $20 of interest a month to $175 a month in interest. It was really impossible for me to ever pay it off because my payment was $115. I started making the phone calls. I had to wait many times for the next person to talk to. When it looked like I had no hope of ever paying it off, and no one that could help, I finally said, " I am doing my best to pay this off, as you can see I will never be able to pay this off at this rate, I need someone on my side!" Finally I got some help and they lowered the interest rate to 15% and took off the some of the interest that had been added on at the 31%. I needed to make sure that I always payed it on time, but now I can pay it off. I was polite and considerate but strong.
I have also been able to get the Dr., Hospitals, Lawyers, and others to lower the price if I can pay the entire bill off. Even if you can only pay one off at a time it is helpful. This has saved me a lot of interest and helped me get my bills under control.
Many of the bill collectors are a lot like us, they want it payed off also. You just have to make a deal!
