How to lower your credit card APR with one phone call (the exact script I use)

Some links in this post are partner links. If you sign up through one, TRH earns a little and it costs you nothing extra. I only link to things I use with my own money.

El que no llora, no mama. Closed mouths don’t get fed. It’s the dicho I put at the top of the negotiation chapter in my book, and it applies to your credit card company more than anywhere else in your life.

Here is a number that should make you a little angry. Card companies lower interest rates for customers who ask all the time. Like…every day. There is a department whose job is to literally keep you from leaving, and they have a nice budget for it. The only requirement is that you make the call. Most people never do, because nobody taught us that this was a conversation you were allowed to have. Also…some of you are scared of confrontation. That’s a conversation for another day.

So let me teach you. This is chapter 12 of the book, Debt Payoff Methods That Actually Work, in phone call form.

Pull up the card's current APR, your balance, how long you have had the account, and whether you have ever paid late. Then look up one competing offer, any 0 percent balance transfer promotion from another bank. You will mention it once, and you only need to know it exists. I like checking on creditkarma.com, but there’s other options too.

Call on a weekday morning. Have a pen. Sit down. Read the script out loud once before you dial, because your voice needs to sound like someone who has done this before.

When someone answers: "Hi, I’ve been a customer since [year] and I have always paid on time. I am calling to ask for a lower interest rate on this card. My current APR is [rate], and I have an offer from another card at [rate]. I would rather stay with you. What can you do?"

Then stop talking. Silence is your superpower here. Let them look.

If they come back with a lower number, say thank you, ask for the new rate and the effective date in writing, and write down the name of the person you spoke with.

If they say there is nothing they can do, say this: "I understand. Can you transfer me to the retention department?" Retention has a wider menu of options than the front line. Repeat the script, word for word, calm.

If retention says no too, ask one last question: "Is there a promotional rate or a hardship program I qualify for?" Then thank them and hang up. Call again in ninety days. Rates change, and so do the people answering the phone.

Say you carry a $6,000 balance at 27% and the call gets you to 19%. That is roughly $40 a month you were handing away. Do not let it dissolve into the checking account. Add it to the payment on that same card, and watch the payoff date move.

This is where the plan matters more than the call. The Sample Debt-Payoff Plan + Script is free, and it has this exact script, the avalanche and snowball methods laid out side by side, and the balance transfer timing so you know when a transfer helps and when it just moves the problem. If you want to run the numbers automatically, the FinGoals Money System has a Freedom Date Calculator that shows you the month the debt is gone at your current pace, and what happens to that month when you add the $40.

One more tool. Watching every card and every balance in one place is what keeps me honest about this, and I do it in Monarch Money, which tracks the balances and the interest so I never have to log into six apps to see the whole picture. My link with code “IXAMAR” gets you 50% off the first year. Worth every penny.

Debt carries shame in our families because debt was dangerous where our families came from. Here, a credit card is a tool with a price tag, and the price is negotiable. Making this call is a grown woman handling her business. That is all it is.

Comment DEBT on any of my Instagram posts and I will send the plan straight to your inbox. And if you want one money move a week, written like a text from your rich big sis, the Tuesday letter is below.

Con amor,
Ixamar

This is education from my own experience, never personalized financial advice.