by Rachelle de Bretagne

Created on: October 25, 2007

Thousands of people all around the world buy on credit. It's a known fact of life these days that in almost every commercial break includes an advert for finance. Polish it up, look at it any way you please but what these people are offering you is debt. They promise the earth and for the little man in the street that wants to feed his family, the thought of spreading payments seems tempting.

Over the years, many major credit card companies are fighting for your custom. You see them offering you incentives to borrow from them rather than the competition by giving you 0 per cent on balance transfers. It's a known fact that they are not doing it for your interest. They are doing it to get more business, and by goodness it is working.

It's time now for the little people to fight back and here, looking at all your plastic and seeing how it is working for you rather than for the bank is a great idea because you know what your income is and how far it will stretch. Look at the interest charges that are charged by each card and take notes because this could work in your favor. The notes that you need are these:

*Name of card company.
*Interest charged per annum
*Balance on each card

Now work out how much interest you pay to your credit card companies each month over a period of the last 12 months and do a quick calculation based on the balance outstanding on each card, and it's frightening to say the least.

Which card costs you the least in interest ? Do you like that particular business and are they easy to talk to ? You may be pleasantly surprised that even if your relationship with that company hasn't been that great, they are interested in your business, and will adjust their interest rate if approached correctly. Letting them know that you are thinking of changing your business to another provider can bring astounding results because they do have an area of flexibility and in some circumstances are willing to give reductions in the interest rate to keep your business.
The way to approach it is not to tell them you cannot afford their interest rates, but to let them know that you are aware of other companies offering better incentives and will change if they cannot beat the rival companies. Pleading poverty doesn't work. They don't want poor customers, but being savvy works extremely well and over the course of the last 20 years has served me well.

It costs as little as a piece of writing paper and a stamp to ask your credit card company to fall in line with what others offer you, and those credit card companies that want your business really do reduce rates to keep your business, meaning that at the end of the day, you pay less interest and end up with more in your pocket. Then when you see all the offers that credit companies advertise on the television, you will know you fought back for the little man and won !

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