Interest Rate Decrease Requests

[tech-d]

Hi all!

Has anyone found a successful way to get companies to lower your interest rate? I looked at my Amazon store card and immediately paid it off because I was horrified (27.5%)! and I should have been paying better attention. I sent Target a nice message below, and I'm sure calling is an effective way but with call volumes being crazy right now...

"Hello, I've been a customer for 2 years now, and I would like to ask if it would be possible to lower my interest rate. I've never missed a payment and shop at Target fairly often, but this card has the highest interest rate of any card I have so it doesn't make sense for me to use it in the future. Let me know when you have a chance, I'm sure you're inundated with requests because of current world events. I hope that you are well in all of this chaos!"

Tried to make it as personable as possible while just asking on a whim. Has anyone had any luck with other means?

[Anonymous]

Store cards usually have the same interest rate for everyone so you're not likely to have much luck there. Citi, Disco, and AMEX offer permanent* margin reductions and Capital One offers temporary ones (they're back to back renewable as long as you have them, generally last 7 months in my experience). Many credit unions offer APR reductions. 

*APR can be hiked at any time by lenders but there often isn't a preset expiration date on margin reductions from those companies. Sometimes they will offer temporary reductions if you don't qualify for a permanent one. 

[tech-d]

Yeah, I think I've learned in the last two months that:

-Amazon store card is terrible

--Stop spending so much on Amazon regardless of card used

-Store cards in general are pretty bad

-Letting autopays go through and paying more on top of that is good

-Read the **bleep** statements

I have a credit union for my normal banking because of where I work and it's super convenient. I can get a CC through them and their interest rates are obsurdly low - potential single digit APRs! - but I'm focused on paying everything off before getting new cards. If I could get 3% off each card's APR, that would expedite the process. $10/month less interest on 3 cards is another $30 toward prinicipal...can't hurt to ask IMO.

Asking around how to go about that from the insanely knowledgeable peeps here.

[Anonymous]

Does your credit union have a balance transfer fee? Because you could get the card to further your goal of paying down your other cards. 

As for the Amazon card, I actually like mine a lot, but I'm very aware that if I ever have to carry a balance and it's not on no interest installments, I need to put in for a no fee BT to my NFCU Platinum card where I can pay 5.99% instead of 27% or whatever it is now. 

As a general rule, store cards have very high APRs. 

[tech-d]

They have a 2% fee, but no interest for 12 months. I spoke with them before everything was on lockdown and they advised that I get under 50% util and my credit score above 675 if I wanted to BT all of that over to a new card with them. Which would roughly translate to a $5k limit. Should be doable by July-August I think. All of my "youngest" cards would be over 2 years in October too which probably helps.

It's really awesome for them to be so open about these discussions. But I also have to help them set up their new phones, so...I guess I get brownie points

[Anonymous]

I got Citi to lower my rate from 11.49% to 6.15%.

Lowest ever among my cards. I got shocked.

[AverageJoesCredit]

As stated, store cards are more or less set so there should be no suprise at how high they are as they are highly visible when applying. 

Other lenders, often times all it takes is a call or chat to request one. Some lenders like Chase do not offer permanent apr redux. 

[CYBERSAM]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I got Citi to lower my rate from 11.49% to 6.15%.

Lowest ever among my cards. I got shocked.

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wow that is amazing! Which CC is that?

[Anonymous]

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@CYBERSAM wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

I got Citi to lower my rate from 11.49% to 6.15%.

Lowest ever among my cards. I got shocked.

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wow that is amazing! Which CC is that?

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Its Citi Dividend Card

[tech-d]

Update. You are correct!

"Thanks for asking about the annual percentage rate (APR) on your account. We're sorry, but we aren't accepting requests for APR decreases right now.

Thanks for contacting us through Manage my RedCard!

Sincerely,
Target Card Services, servicer to TD Bank USA, N.A."