They told me that if I miss a payment again (since I guess I missed one in May) my APR reverts back. I'm still putting this in the win column.

When I mentioned that one of the cards I had was another Citibank card, the CSR suggested doing a balance transfer at 5.99% fixed for life of balance, and then offered to send me balance transfer checks to use any way I want.

My original rate was only lowered from 13.99% to 4.99% + prime, but the CSR even suggested I use the check to pay off my current balance to get the 5.99% , and gave me 2.99% on new purchases. Seems pretty decent...

Then I called the other Citibank card, had to speak to a supervisor, but they gave me 2.9% + prime. So I might just keep that balance for now.

Great advice, Consumerist!!!!!

I called my WaMu Credit card it went from %11.99 ->%8.99
I told them I was going to pay off one of my Credit Cards with the higest rate, and keep a balance on the other one with the lowest %.

Basically, I just told them that giving me a credit card for $8k while still in college was ridiculous considering that I was a full-time student and had no real income. They agreed and made the cut .. I've since paid the card off and destroyed it immediately after.

HEADS UP:

Discover is feeling competitive today.

I called and asked what my interest rate is: 14.99%
I explained to the CSR that I was looking to get a competitive rate as we wish to purchase some large ticket items for our home.
After a few minutes I was able to negotiate 12.99%

It pays to "DISCOVER" that credit grantors are hurtin' for business :-)

@mtaylor924: I have variable rates on AMEX, Citibank, Discover, and ... evil upon evils, BofA. After each Fed rate cut, the next billing cycle revealed my APR was decreased by the corresponding amount.

While some of these banks (*cough* BofA *cough*) are downright sneaky, they didn't force me to call in to have my rates lowered on a variable APR.

A small blessing, I guess.

@Jim: I've had the same experience with them. My solution was simply to pay off the card and never use it again. (The account's still open to preserve my credit score.)

We review all our accounts periodically and adjust rates at that time. We don't do it by request.

I'm pretty sure the banks tailor their offers these days to each customer, so it's useless to compare. By using a magical formula, the CSR gets to say that you're getting "best" rate the bank offers (or maybe they just lie). Everybody wins!

i pay my cards in full and on time. i've had maybe 1 late payment in 8 years. Consumerist posted another article months back and said I was the worst customer to card companies because they make no money off of me. I guess that's why I had no luck lowering my APR on my 2 cards when i tried last year. Only reason I want to lower it anyway is in the chance i have a big purchase in the future. Maybe i'll try these methods this time

Something to add:

When you call, kindly tell them you just can't afford to carry a balance @ the current rate ...

( Note, I don't carry balances but, if they "think" you might carry one it seems to help.)

About 1/2 the time this has worked for me.

You don't know until you ask !

I highly advise consumers to do this.
I regularly ( about every 6 months ) call each of my credit card companies and NICELY ask if there is a possibility of getting the interest rates reduced.

I would say about 1/2 the time I am successful.

One thing I would advise is to tell them that due to the high interest rate they currently are offering me I just CAN'T afford to carry a balance ... that has helped in many instances.

I can't stress enough that being polite helps !

Good luck ...

I did this with BOA several months ago- I was on a penalty rate for a payment that was a few days late last year, and it'd been more than 6 months since that late payment...all my payments since then had been on time, so I called requesting info on why they had not lowered it. (Their website says if you pay 6 in a row on time, it will be lowered.) The reps shuffled me around, advised me there was nothing they could do...same with the supervisor.

I remained calm/polite, called up executive customer service (Thanks for the #, Consumerist!)and calmly asked why BOA was unable to follow their written policy for my account. The gentleman I spoke with was very nice, lowered my rate to 11.9 FIXED. Fixed is nice...

I also tried leveraging the fact that I had just been approved for an AMEX that was a full 5% lower and had 0 APR for 12 months. That was useless. Guess I'm using the AMEX from now on!

I now have a canceled card, lol. No harm in trying I guess.

Of course, the Fed has been slashing rates and yet my latest statement still shows the same rate. So I called up and asked if it could be lowered. At first the CSR said no, but when I calmly gave their own reasoning back to her, re: my rate being tied to prime, she put me on hold for less than 30 seconds to "check on something" and came back with a 3 point drop. Not a lot, but better than nothing. I only have less than a grand on it currently (owing to a large car service followed by an unexpected home repair), but every penny saved in finance charges is worth it.

Moral: if your rate is variable, bring up the recent prime rate cuts when you call.

Didn't work for me.

I'm suprised this works, credit cards are the new cash. Everyones got'em, customers are not short in supply

Me: "I'd like to see if I can get a lower interest rate."
CSR: "Have you had your yearly interest-rate evaluation?"
Me: "Nope."
CSR: "Let me go ahead and do that. [pause] We can offer you 7.9%."
Me: "Great."
CSR: "Anything else we can do for you?"

For comparison purposes, here's how USAA went:

Me: "I'd like to see if I can get a lower interest rate."
CSR: "I see that some of your promotional rates are expiring soon. Let me see what I can do. [pause] I'm going to place you on hold for a minute. [hold] Unfortunately I can't offer a lower purchase rate at this time, but I can offer you 4.25% for the life of your current balance."
Me: "Great."

I'd consider trying this on my cards from shitty banks, but why bother? NFCU and USAA have fee-free balance transfers.

What I dont understand is I have a capital one card and I get about 4-6 offers for creditcards from them both for my self and under my business. This is every month damn tree killers!!

I told them to go ahead.

They never bothered. I still keep getting new cards in the mail and can't figure out how to get rid of them. (Providian)

I tried this with my BofA visa. They were more than happy to cancel it for me, and kept asking if I wanted to do that.