Do you want to know how to lower interest rates on credit cards? Many people do and for a good reason: lower credit card interest rates can make a big difference on your payments. This is especially true if you carry a relatively big balance on your cards.
There are two ways that you can use to lower the interest rates. The first one is asking for lower rates on your current card issuer. The benefit of this way is you don’t have to go through the troubles of registering a new card or transferring your balance to the new card. The downside is it might be difficult to get a reduced rate from the same issuer.
There’s no hurt in trying though. It will take you only a few minutes to call your credit card company and ask for lower rates. So call them and ask for lower annual percentage rate (APR). To make it easier, you might want to ask them for a hardship program, which is a program designed for those who find it difficult to pay the balance. Your credit card company might give you special interest rates in such a case. But be careful, there’s also a possibility that you can no longer use the card until you pay the balance in full.
Another alternative is to get a new card that has lower interest rates. Then you need to do a balance transfer from your old card to the new one. One important thing to pay attention here is the balance transfer fee. Make sure that the fee is low enough for you to justify the transfer. Also you need to find out about how long the promotion rate of the new card last. Can you get enough benefits to justify a balance transfer? This is something you need to find out before deciding to move to a new card.
The best strategy, of course, is to not carry a balance on your card. In such a case, your annual percentage rate isn’t relevant. You always pay your balance in full so the credit card interest rates simply won’t affect you. This should be something you aim for. However, if you do carry a balance, try to the strategies above to lower interest rates on credit cards.