Did you know you can lower your credit card APR in under five minutes?
I’m very bad at money. I have a stupid amount of credit card debt and student loan debt and I kind of always just assume that’s the way it’s always going to be.
I was listening to Lo Bosworth’s podcast “Lady Lovin‘” (random, I know) and that week’s guest was a woman named Nicole Lapin, author of the financial guidebook Rich Bitch.
She talked about a lot of financial stuff that I kinda zoned out during and then she gave this piece of advice.
Negotiate lower payments EVERYWHERE.
Nicole first suggested lowering your cell phone bill. I called my cell carrier and saved my sister like, $50 on a new phone. Which is good, for her, I guess?
And then she said that we should all be negotiating our APR on our credit cards and I was like:
We could be lowering our APR? I had no idea! Some of you may already know this but unfortunately, I’m not financially savvy, so I didn’t know.
First of all, your APR stands for Annual Percentage Rate. It’s basically bank terminology for interest and how much interest they are charging on your card balance and the percentages range between 12 and 22 percent. If you pay off your credit card bill every month, the APR doesn’t really apply to you, because the credit company can only charge interest on an outstanding balance.
But if you have credit card debt, then you should pay attention to your APR and how high it is. In a nutshell, the lower your APR, the better. If you don’t know what your APR is, check your paper statements for your credit card bill.
So anyways, you CAN lower your rate and here’s how EASY it was.
Step 1: Call your credit card company. The number is usually on the back of your card.
Step 2: Ask them if you can lower your APR. They might transfer you to a couple different phone operators, but just sit tight.
Step 3: They’ll ask why you want it lowered. Don’t be afraid to get a little theatrical. Remember, you want them to lower it.
Step 4: They’ll lower it, or they won’t, but they didn’t seem to put up much of a fight with me and saved me about 2 percentage points.
And that’s it!
