Just a few quick tips I learned from my Whimsical Negotiation with the credit card company. This was my progression, and yours will probably be the same.
- Actually ask. If you don’t ask you get nothing. NOTHING. The credit card company has no incentive to reduce your interest rate out of the goodness of their hearts. You need to ask. What do you have to lose?
- Be in the right frame of mind. You have nothing to lose, something to gain, so take a light hearted approach. The worst they can do is say no, and you are in the same spot. So if you can, have a bit of fun with the process.
- Expect the first response to be an explanation and for them to do nothing and offer to do nothing. Most people will get turned down once and stop there. This is the absolute best way for the credit card company to avoid cutting into their profit margin by lowering interest rates. Most people will get the first no and give up.
- Be tenacious. After they say no, ask to talk to some one with more authority. The first step is always a no, which weeds out the people who shot off an email but are willing to give up and accept their fate.
- Being tenacious gets you a token interest rate change. I got a 2% adjustment down, you may get more or less. 2% is still 2%. This is intended to throw you a bone and hopefully shut you up.
- Be tenacious, yeah, go back at them again. Thank them for the token gesture of good will, and ask to talk to some one who can make a substantive change.
- You will probably get another “No” at this point. I did. After all, the company may really just refuse to work with you any further. Although, like the initial no, this may just be intended to get you to give up after the token gesture. So why not ask again? What do you have to lose?
- BDB tactics. BDB stands for Bull Dog on a Bone, and you are going to gnaw on them like one. Shooting off an email to their customer service asking to escalate the request to a higher authority took me 5 minutes today. It may not yeild a result, but why not ask?
Seriously, it may take you 5 minutes of time to save hundreds or thousands of dollars every year. So why don’t you just ask them already? =)
