@UncleB wrote:Hello friends!
While I've had luck lately with CLIs, I'm to the point were I'm shifting my energy over to getting APR reductions where I can.
Today I chatted with Discover, and the chat CSR was extremely pleasant as expected (it is Discover, after all). The rep was able to lower my rate from 20.24% to 16.49%. I realize this still isn't a earth-moving low rate, but I figured it was a good first start in the right direction.
She indicated that I could check back again later to see about having it lowered further; I didn't ask about how long to wait... I assume that it's likely a year. In any case I've never paid them any interest at all so it's not that big of a deal, but I still like to have my APRs as low as possible for those 'just in case' times when you need to carry a balance for a month or two.
I'll be checking with American Express to see about getting a lower rate on my BCP soon. I don't have any other cards that are eligible for a lower rate right now; most either have static rates (Capital One) or are still on a promo rate.
Hopefully this data point will be useful to somebody.
Actually it is an earth-moving interest rate deduction. You wouldn't believe how much my finance teacher taught me about compounding interest and how much it can add up.
If you have a $10,000 balance at 20.24%, don't charge anything new to the card ever again, and make $250 a month payments, you'll pay $6,784 in interest over a 68 month period.
If you have a $10,000 balance at 16.49%, don't charge anything new to the card ever again, and make $350 a month payments, you'll pay $2,787 in interest, a savings of $3,997 on interest on a 37 mont period.
@Anonymous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:Hello friends!
While I've had luck lately with CLIs, I'm to the point were I'm shifting my energy over to getting APR reductions where I can.
Today I chatted with Discover, and the chat CSR was extremely pleasant as expected (it is Discover, after all). The rep was able to lower my rate from 20.24% to 16.49%. I realize this still isn't a earth-moving low rate, but I figured it was a good first start in the right direction.
She indicated that I could check back again later to see about having it lowered further; I didn't ask about how long to wait... I assume that it's likely a year. In any case I've never paid them any interest at all so it's not that big of a deal, but I still like to have my APRs as low as possible for those 'just in case' times when you need to carry a balance for a month or two.
I'll be checking with American Express to see about getting a lower rate on my BCP soon. I don't have any other cards that are eligible for a lower rate right now; most either have static rates (Capital One) or are still on a promo rate.
Hopefully this data point will be useful to somebody.
Actually it is an earth-moving interest rate deduction. You wouldn't believe how much my finance teacher taught me about compounding interest and how much it can add up.
If you have a $10,000 balance at 20.24%, don't charge anything new to the card ever again, and make $250 a month payments, you'll pay $6,784 in interest over a 68 month period.
If you have a $10,000 balance at 16.49%, don't charge anything new to the card ever again, and make $350 a month payments, you'll pay $2,787 in interest, a savings of $3,997 on interest on a 37 mont period.
LOL... I was referring to 'earth-moving' relative to the reductions some others have reported... but you do have an excellent point! 
@Anonymous wrote:I think my interest rate is the same as your old one. Any tips on getting it lowered?
I don't know if there's anything specific they look for, but I can tell you what I did... I started off with 19.99% (raised to 20.24% last December with Fed hike) and my credit score was in the low 700s. I also had two baddies reporting - two old charged off accounts (one paid, one not).
Over the last 12 months, I've carried a balance for about six months (0% balance transfer and 0% new account promo). I used the account heavily... when I got the BT, my credit line was only $5.5k so I was at 60+% utilization for a few months until I got it paid down (it went slow since I was adding new purchases each month).
My TU as reported by Discover is now 788 (as of 9/14), which is the highest it's ever been, so I'm sure that helped a great deal in addition to my payment history. Even when I was carrying a balance my payments were $300-400 each month, so that might have been favorable as well. Actually my last statement had a balance due of $27, which was the lowest since I got the card (and was an anomaly).
That being said, Discover is known around here to be 'weird' at times, and their actions with regards to SLs, CLIs, and even APRs has been known to defy common sense on more than one occasion. I would just suggest to 'treat them right' and eventually they will reward it... it does take some longer than others, but they usually come around eventually. 
@wasCB14 wrote:When fishing for some extra rewards recently (I felt it was worth a shot after some recent non-bonus-category purchases), I also asked Discover about a renewed 0% period.
They wouldn't go below 3.99% for 12 months of purchases, though. I was hoping for 0%. It would be nice to carry a balance at 0% while they pay me 0.95% interest on my savings account. No dice, though.
"High to not-so-high" APR changes are a funny thing. I used to ask for them, but don't anymore. 20.24% and 16.49% seem different when you look at amortization tables, and yet they are almost equally absurd APRs for anyone with halfway decent credit to actually pay. APRs actually worth considering seem to mostly come from special offers, very old accounts, and specialize BT cards.
I agree.
There's no way I would carry a balance even at 16.49%, but I wanted to see if a reduction was possible, and my hope is that with time (and probably multiple requests) I'll be able to eventually get it down to where if I wanted to carry a balance for a couple of months I wouldn't feel the need to do an immediate BT somewhere else.
I guess you might say I'm in it for the 'long game' and I plan to continue to see how low they will go. Eventually they might go low enough, but even if they don't for me, my hope is that somebody else in the community here will be able to use the data points I've shared to help them reach their goals, whatever they may be.
@Anonymous wrote:It's also extremely encouraging on a credit rebuilding journey to get a pat on the head in the form of any APR reduction, whether you use it or not. Sort of like periodically playing the "luv" button and winning. It's a sign that you're on the right path and it's being noticed.
+1
This is how I feel as well... it's a great 'litmus test', so to speak!
@Anonymous wrote:UncleB, APR reductions are the BOMB! Congratulations! well done!
Thanks so much... I agree completely! 
After I have a little time to enjoy my good fortune with this one a little longer, I'm going to see if I can catch a break on my BCP... right now it's at the highest APR, so I think there's room for at least a little movement there.