Qualifying For a Low APR in a Stingy Credit Market
The economic condition has led to credit card companies increasing their interest rates. Good deals are rarely available to consumers. Most card companies are also reducing available balance in order to protect themselves. If you have decided that you need a credit card, you must make a lot of decisions and choose wisely. The difficulty begins when you have to choose between a market flooded with various types of offers and various benefits (or lack of them).
As you set out to find a credit card with low interest rates, you will soon find out that it is a tough situation. Many card companies offer an introductory zero percentage APR but charge high interest rates on your purchases later. Although, most of these factors are out of your control, there are a few things that you can do to ensure that you qualify for a card with low APR:
- Timely Payment Of Bills you have a strong credit history but have been late on your bill payment once or twice, you can politely request the credit card issuer to waive off the fine imposed on you and not report it to the agencies.
Credit issuers review your credit score when they are deciding the interest rate at which they will issue the credit card to you. The lower your score is, the higher will be the rate of interest. Ensure that you get the best deal by paying your credit card bills and other bills on time. A consumer who does not pay his bills on time is not considered to be financially responsible. So try your best to avoid the scenario. Also keep your credit utilization low.
- Try to negotiate
When you are notified about increase in interest rates, try to negotiate a deal with them so that you can continue to enjoy the current or lower rates. This will be possible if and only if you have a strong credit history with the lender and are considered a valued trusted customer by them.
- Close Your Card
When the credit card company does not agree to keep the interest rates low, you can always close the account. Remember, however, that this will affect your credit score, especially, if the account has a long credit history.
- Consistency
Avoid changing and altering the various aspects of your account frequently especially if it has negative impact on your credit rating. Instead, try to repay your bills and loans as quickly as possible.
As more and more institutions and individuals are filing for bankruptcy and going negligent on their loan payments, credit card interest rates are soaring. This affects new as well as old trusted customers immensely. There is very less you can do to influence the situation apart from working to ensure that you follow all the right credit rules.
