Just ask
I sent a $115.00 check to Discover this month. If I recall correctly that was the minimum payment. $61.07 of the $115.00 I mailed them was applied to INTEREST. Or in other words, having sent Discover $115.00 only $53.93 was applied to my balance. MORE OF MY PAYMENT WENT TOWARDS INTEREST THAN TO HAMMERING DOWN ON MY ACTUAL BALANCE!!!!!
I take responsibility for my actions. I got myself into this mess, paying interest is what people who make poor money decisions (like me) do. I'm actually OK with paying interest. What gets me crazy-mad is that less than half of my payment to this lender is actually going towards my balance.
I figured I'd call Discover and see if they could lower my interest rate any. Currently I have cards as low as 9.99% and 7.99%. The least they could do would be to offer my something competitive right? Wrong! There was "no one there" (wink wink, nudge nudge) that could lower my rate.
Well, it wasn't a big deal for me anyway. An hour earlier I had initiated a balance transfer of 95% of my Discover balance to a new AMEX card which boasts a 3.99% interest for the life of all balance transfers made to the account before 2007.
I hadn't won yet because Discover still had $13 in Cashback Bonuses that they owed me. The bummer deal is that you need to withdrawl Cashback Bonuses in increments of $20. I wanted my $13 back! Just for the sake of asking I asked what my Cashback Bonus balance was (which I already knew) in the hopes that by some miracle that she could magically apply my $13 Cashback Bonus balance to my debt balance. This woman must have taken pitty on me or something because as soon as I said "Cashback Bonus" she said, "What I can do is apply an additional $30 to your Cashback Bonus balance after you make *one* purchase of *any amount* on your card."
My jaw droped - This lady had just offered my $40!
I immediatly took her up on her offer. My current $13 Cashback Bonus balance PLUS the $30 promised me will put me over $40 in Cashback Bonuses.
So even though I didn't get the lower rate (which didn't matter any way) I did get $40 out of the deal. I couldn't help but feel just a littler better about this situation after this small victory in my fight against debt. The moral of the story is that you can't expect to get what you aren't willing to ask for. So ask for lower rates, ask for promotions, ask them specifically if they can do anything for you to save you a few bucks. The only thing you have to loose if a few minuites of your day.
I take responsibility for my actions. I got myself into this mess, paying interest is what people who make poor money decisions (like me) do. I'm actually OK with paying interest. What gets me crazy-mad is that less than half of my payment to this lender is actually going towards my balance.
I figured I'd call Discover and see if they could lower my interest rate any. Currently I have cards as low as 9.99% and 7.99%. The least they could do would be to offer my something competitive right? Wrong! There was "no one there" (wink wink, nudge nudge) that could lower my rate.
Well, it wasn't a big deal for me anyway. An hour earlier I had initiated a balance transfer of 95% of my Discover balance to a new AMEX card which boasts a 3.99% interest for the life of all balance transfers made to the account before 2007.
I hadn't won yet because Discover still had $13 in Cashback Bonuses that they owed me. The bummer deal is that you need to withdrawl Cashback Bonuses in increments of $20. I wanted my $13 back! Just for the sake of asking I asked what my Cashback Bonus balance was (which I already knew) in the hopes that by some miracle that she could magically apply my $13 Cashback Bonus balance to my debt balance. This woman must have taken pitty on me or something because as soon as I said "Cashback Bonus" she said, "What I can do is apply an additional $30 to your Cashback Bonus balance after you make *one* purchase of *any amount* on your card."
My jaw droped - This lady had just offered my $40!
I immediatly took her up on her offer. My current $13 Cashback Bonus balance PLUS the $30 promised me will put me over $40 in Cashback Bonuses.
So even though I didn't get the lower rate (which didn't matter any way) I did get $40 out of the deal. I couldn't help but feel just a littler better about this situation after this small victory in my fight against debt. The moral of the story is that you can't expect to get what you aren't willing to ask for. So ask for lower rates, ask for promotions, ask them specifically if they can do anything for you to save you a few bucks. The only thing you have to loose if a few minuites of your day.
posted by Will at 11:44 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home