How To Negotiate A Better Credit Card Deal With Your Bank For The New Year
Posted January 28th, 2010 and last modified December 29th, 2011Learn how easy it is to persuade your existing credit card provider to give you a better deal. Know the things to say, what you can ask for, and the most productive way to carry out your negotiations.
The best way to get yourself a better New Year credit card deal with your existing provider is with some gentle and subtle negotiation.
Although the most usual way to achieve a better interest rate is to take out a new credit card with a different provider and make a balance transfer to that card, this may not be necessary. For whatever reason, you may want to remain with your current credit card provider, but you just may prefer to have a lower rate of interest on the card, or a more attractive annual fee. This may be because you have an outstanding balance from your Christmas spending, or in case this happens in the next few months.
What you should do:
Pick the phone and speak to an advisor at your credit card company. Tell them you would like to talk to someone about the current interest rate or annual fee on your card. You may already be talking to someone who can help, or you will be passed onto the right person. This is not a great issue for a credit card provider, and there are advisers who are fully authorised to independently alter the terms of your card.
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What you can ask for:
Remember that credit card companies want your business. In fact, they are positively scrapping over it in these tough financial times, and it is not set to get much better for them as they fight for what is left of the market before it becomes saturated, as it has in other countries. Bearing this in mind, you should be aware that you are in a relative position of strength. The two main areas to negotiate are the rate of interest and the annual fee. You will know which is most important to you. If you always clear your bill each month then the interest rate doesn’t matter and you should ask for a lower fee. The advisor will have pulled up your file so will know whether you have a balance you may be thinking of transferring to a different card.
What you should say:
Your approach should be to mention the very attractive rates you have seen being offered by rival credit card providers and compare them to your current rates. This may be all that is necessary. Advisers will not be surprised by this approach and can read between the lines, therefore may well straight away offer you a lower rate of interest or lower annual fee. Don’t take their first offer. It’s a game of haggling, and they will not start at their best offer. You could say again how tempted you are by competitors’ offers. You will know when the advisor has reached their limit because they may reluctantly suggest that you do indeed go elsewhere. At this point you either accept their new terms, ask to speak to someone more senior, or move to another provider.
What to avoid:
As long as you stay calm and keep a sense of humour, you should be okay. What will not work is making angry demands of your credit card provider. Remember that although they want your business, they will not go under without it. Be realistic. If your current rate of interest is 15%, you will not have that reduced to 0% even if there are several competitors offering such balance transfer deals. Have a little fun in your negotiations; people respond so much better.
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