Has anyone successfully got their interest rate lowered?

[hdporter]

In a post yesterday, I pointed out that even a 14% APR credit card that doesn't charge cash advance/balance transfer fees is valuable in terms of personal liquidity management.

 

Speaking to @shifter's post, you likely can do better.

 

I don't name the CU which I've been a member of for 40+ years because it's a local, relatively small operation.

 

That said, their standard non-rewards credit card has a fixed 8.9% APR, and their current bt promo is 12-mo @ 3.99% (no bt fees).

 

This is an example of what you likely can latch onto with a bit of effort ...

 

 

[supern8ural]

On 3/8/2025 at 12:05 PM, supern8ural said:

So I'm following up on this...  I've optimized my scores as much as I can at the current time and found myself sitting on the couch waiting for laundry and the dishwasher to finish, so I figured I might as well suck it up and do the one thing that I really hate doing, which is picking up the phone and talking to people.  Results:

 

Discover It: 25.24% to 20.something % (I neglected to write it down) this is not the lowest advertised APR for this card (which is 18.24%), but I'll take it.  Representative basically said to wait 6 months and call back and request again, so I shall!

 

Costco Anywhere Visa by Citi: they're "not doing interest rate adjustments at this time".  I'm currently at 25.99% and the lowest advertised is 19.49% so I do want to lower this though.

 

Citi Double Cash: 26.24% to 18.24% which *is* the lowest advertised interest rate for that card.  So that's awesome.  This is odd as this card is much newer than the Costco one.

 

So now all my cards are at or below the lowest advertised APR except for aforementioned Discover It and Costco Anywhere Visa.  Macy's AmEx was at 30.99% in January (last time I used it, so that's the last statement I have) current advertised rate is 34.99% but hey, if carrying a balance on a credit card is dumb, carrying a balance on a store branded card is double dumb.  Not much I can do about that except just let it age and contribute positively to my credit score.  The rest (BoA Customized Cash Rewards, 17.24%/18.24% advertised,  Chase Freedom Unlimited, 19.24%/19.49% advertised, and Capital One Savor, 19.24%/19.24% advertised) are under 20% and at or under advertised which I guess is about as good as you're going to get these days.

 

Yes, I know, never carry a balance - and I'm not, except for a 0%BT on my Chase card which will drop under 10% util next month - I just figure that this is good to do now while my scores are awesome, God forbid things change in the future, I may need this stuff.

 

As of right now my whole "rebuild" process is going well.  I'm pretty much good, except things I want to work on:

 

Discover is only $10k CL and I'm not at the lowest advertised APR

Costco Anywhere Visa is only $1K CL but not eligible for CLI for another 3 months, also not at the lowest APR

Citi Double Cash is only $1K CL also not eligible for 3 months but *is* at lowest APR

 

onward and upward!

 

 

 

 

 

So it's now been 6 mos. since I called Discover and my calendar reminder popped up; I called in and got my rate lowered to prime+9.99% which is 17.49% today.  That's actually lower than the lowest advertised as their site says 18.24%.  I'll take it!

 

That would have concluded this exercise except I have also acquired an AmEx BCE - I wanted to diversify since now Cap1 owns Discover so the number of institutions with which I have cards decreased - and that one is now a hair over 3 months old, I've already got my first CLI on it and I'm still in a 0% promo period, but when that expires my rate will be 25.24% and the lowest advertised appears to be 20.24% (can't see it on their web site because it apparently doesn't show that info because it recognizes my PC) so that's one more to work on.

 

[supern8ural]

Well this is an old thread, but coming back to this because the promo period on aforementioned AmEx BCE is expiring soon...

 

Now before anyone jumps in, I feel obligated to point out that I just paid off my statement balance on the BCE last month and have an auto payment scheduled for this Friday to pay off the statement balance again this month, so I've actually paid off the balance transfer early and should be able to avoid interest on any purchases (I do use the card as well, as the promo included 0% on purchases).

 

Anyway, I called them today as while the prime rate has gone down it's still 24.49%.  Did some digging and compared the generic cardmember agreement with my own

 

Category - generic CM agreement rate - my rate

 

Purchases - Prime + 12.74 to 21.74% - Prime + 17.74%

Balance Transfers - same

Cash Advance - Prime + 21.99% - Prime + 21.99%

 

so my purchases APR and BT APR are 5% higher than their lowest advertised rate.  This cannot stand!  especially since two of my FICO 8s are now >800.  (not sure why Equifax is stuck at 798...)

 

Called today and the lady was very nice - I seriously have nothing but nice things to say about AmEx's customer service.  Really should have got with them years ago.  I never have had a truly bad experience with credit cards, but AmEx really does seem to be trying harder to make sure I'm happy.  Anyway, I was told that they can't re-evaluate until the promo expires so please call back the day after it does so.  Fair enough, I'm setting a calendar reminder now.  There's the important info I came here to post, AmEx won't re-evaluate your APR while you're in a promo period apparently.  Anyway, this would be the last card I have where my interest rate is higher than the lowest advertised rate for that card (it's also my newest card).

 

My Costco Anywhere Visa is now at 18.74% which is actually lower than what they advertise now (19.49 - 27.49%) so I did call to get that lowered but apparently neglected to post the data point.

 

Now my Macy's AmEx (actually a Citi card) is an eye watering 32.74% but I don't really know if it's even worth it to call them as apparently they don't bother to evaluate you, that just is what it is.  I really only keep that card around to fatten my profile - I got it to get a fat discount on a watch I wanted a couple years ago and that really seems to be all it's good for, I just buy lunch on it once every six months or so and then pay it off.  I don't even ask for CLIs on it after they hit me with a hard pull a while back.