interest rates on credit cards :(

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
interest rates on credit cards :(
5
Tue, 09-13-2005 - 4:39pm
My husband and I have two boys, ages 7 and 2 and we have about $27,000 in credit card debt, along with a first and second mortgage. We have finally stopped using the credit cards completely but my problem is that all of them have increased our interest rates to really high amounts so the payments we are sending in are not hardly making a dent at all. I have tried calling them and asking for a lower rate but they all tell me no. I realize that we have a lot of debt but we have never been late with a payment and we actually do have about $12,000 in credit that we haven't used so it's not like we are about to max out everything. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them to lower the rates?
Thanks in advance
Angie
angie.jpg picture by ajf992009
Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Wed, 09-14-2005 - 9:49am

Hmmm....I'm not sure if you haven't been late and you have good credit, are you getting offers for lower rates?


If my credit cards raised my rates for no reason and then wouldn't lower it back, with good credit you usually have the option of surfing the balances to new cards with lower rates.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Wed, 09-14-2005 - 11:12am
I haven't asked them why, I guess I never thought to do that. I do get offers all the time in the mail but I called one and they won't give me enough credit to transfer the whole balance of one credit card that I already have so that would just be adding another payment a month and I really can't afford to do that even though I know in the long run I would be saving money.
angie.jpg picture by ajf992009
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-10-2003
Wed, 09-14-2005 - 2:33pm

I think what some people do is transfer part of it, maybe a couple thousand. Then when that is paid down, they just make another transfer if there is another offer. As long as you don't move so much that both payments are high, this will probably work. It will take more work on your part, but as long as you are not adding to the other card, by paying off part of it, you are dropping what you need to pay each month.

Auntydoxzz

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-23-2004
Thu, 09-15-2005 - 11:17am
Try looking on the internet for credit card offers that have 0% interest for 6 months or a year if you transfer a balance from another credit card. My DH and I have been doing this and we are at the point where we are not paying ANY interest on our credit card debt anymore. What also typically happens is that once you pay off one of your credit cards or transfer the entire balance to a 0% interest card, the card you just paid off will often send you an offer to do the same thing with one of your other cards! So what has happened to us is that we have the same credit cards we always did but we just keep transferring the balances around as we are paying them off. Once we get them all paid off we will close all but one of them to keep for emergencies. This process is saving us thousands of dollors in interest and getting us out of debt much faster.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-15-2003
Fri, 09-16-2005 - 12:24pm
That would be nice and all but what about the people who don't have perfect credit to be able to qualify for 0%? My credit isn't horrible but it isn't perfect either. I can't qualify. Isn't that why interest rates raise in the first place most of the time? Because your credit isn't great?