daddysliloneds
Posts: 1351
Joined: 6/28/2006
Status: offline
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what many people fail to realize, is that they can negotiate with the credit card companies and get just about any interest rate that they choose. i do it all the time and did it to get out of debt as well. it's the same exact thing that those credit counceling agencies do for people, yet the agencies charge for their service, as if they have some specialized method of doing things or some sort of legal upper-hand...
i had $16,000 in debt, which started out at a 12 percent interest rate and jacked up as high as 23 percent interest rate(on three combined credit cards)...
i called them and told them that it was way too much and if they ever wanted to see their money without me defaulting on my payments, they better drop their rates and fast. i got them down to 8 percent at the end of the phone call. two months later, the rates are up again, i guess they thought i wouldn't notice. so once again i called them to negotiate rates...
long story short, i got one of the credit card companies to guarantee me a 3.4 percent interest rate on the life of the balance and transferred all my debt to their card. i was debt free in a couple of years.
if so many people didn't live outside their means and/or default on their payments and go belly-up bankrupt, then the interest rates wouldn't be so high. we all get punished for the mistakes of others which sucks, but banking is a business and people are in business to make money and loaning money is high-risk, and there will always be someone that is willing to pay whatever they ask because they have no other choice, or because they don't have negotiating power, etc., etc.
in my opinion, lenders should not have thier interest rates regulated unless they have the monopoly in the business. they too have to protect their asses and their assets and if having high interest rates does just that, then by all means, let them continue to do their thing and to make their money just like every other business in the world.
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RE: Credit Card Interest Rates - How much is too much? - 
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