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not too high
* You don't carry high balances on the card
* An excellent payment history
* The card can't be "sub-prime," meaning that it can't be a secured card that is marketed only to people with bad credit.

If you meet these conditions, your chances of getting a lower rate are much increased.

Furthermore, it helps if you go into that telephone call armed with some knowledge, which will give you leverage. This leverage comes in the form of knowing what rates are available out there. So if your credit card has an interest rate of 19%, you want to see if other major cards offer deals with lower interest rates. If they do, you can take that knowledge into your phone call and use it as interest.

Finding out what other credit card companies are offering is not very difficult. You only need to go to their main websites and their best offers are usually clearly shown on their homepage. Try Bank of America, American Express and Discover, to name only a few.

ON THE PHONE

Armed with some leverage, you are ready to talk to your credit card company. Here are a few scripts you might use when you make those calls. Notice that these scripts assume that you are a great customer and that you have a good credit history.

Script 1: I've been visiting several of your competitors' websites, the ______ Bank and ______ Bank. I've found out that they are offering a _____ interest rate on purchases. This is _____ points lower than what I'm paying on my credit card with your company. Are you willing to give me that rate?

Script 2: I'm calling to request that you reduce my current interest rate of 16.9% to 8.9% so that it matches what is available in the current market. I feel like this is a fair rate since at least three major credit card issuers, _________, _________, and _________ are offering it to new customers like me who have an excellent credit rating.

Script 3: I visited your website and saw that you are offering a rate of ____ to attract new customers. I've been an excellent customer of yours for __ years and would like to receive the same rate that you are offering new customers.

Script 4 (Be ready to follow through with this): I was about to sign up for a new credit card at the _______ website and thought I would call you and ask for a lower rate beforehand. I would like to ask you to give me this lower rate. If you can't do this, I will go ahead and transfer my balance from your card to theirs as soon as I hang up the phone.

It's possible that the customer service representative you

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