海角大神

For most people, the debt that really tips things from a manageable situation into a very challenging one is credit card debt.

Credit cards are incredibly easy to acquire and incredibly easy to use without a second thought. Often, people can rack up hundreds of dollars in debt before ever seeing a single bill. The abstraction between the plastic card and the money and debt it represents often leads people to make poor choices, which leads people to debt.

Eventually, people begin to struggle with their credit card payments or find themselves shocked by the minimum payment.

I know this struggle. I鈥檝e been there. Once upon a time, I kept building debt until it reached a very painful point.

One of my first courses of action was to call up the credit card companies and play a little hardball with them.

Let鈥檚 get this straight before we start: this is not a tactic you want to use if you rely on your credit card to keep food on the table. If you are in a truly desperate situation, this technique has the potential to backfire on you, because the credit card company can respond by closing your card.

Now, if you鈥檙e in a reasonably good financial state and aren鈥檛 relying on the card to live, that鈥檚 not much of a drawback, particularly compared to the big advantages you might get from such a call.

The big advantage, of course, is a drop in your interest rate, which will reduce the amount of interest charged to your account each month, directly saving you a lot of money over the long run.

For example, if you鈥檙e on track to pay off a $10,000 credit card debt in 8 years, one that has a 19.9% interest rate, you鈥檒l be paying $10,055 (approximately) in interest over that period. Get that rate reduced to 9.9% and you鈥檙e paying only $4,516 (approximately) in interest. You鈥檒l save about $5,500 just due to one little change.

How do you do it? The first step is to give the company a call. The number鈥檚 on the back of your card. Navigate their phone menus until you reach a live person, then state that you鈥檙e really stretching to make the payments on the card and that you鈥檇 like an interest rate reduction. If the person who talks to you can鈥檛 (or won鈥檛) reduce your rate, don鈥檛 be afraid to talk to a supervisor.

The key thing is to not get angry. The bank may not want to reduce your rate, particularly at first. If you hear a 鈥渘o,鈥� don鈥檛 respond with anger and hang up. Patiently explain your situation again. Eventually, you鈥檒l be passed to someone who can make a decision on your situation.

Remember, only do this if you can tolerate having the card cancelled (meaning you still owe the money) or having the credit limit reduced. If you can鈥檛 handle those things, don鈥檛 try this tactic. If you can, though, this tactic can save you a lot of money if you have a hefty credit card balance.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available at Amazon and at bookstores everywhere.聽