Personal Finance and Investing

Explain how long you have been their customer. The longer the better, but don’t let this small obstacle obstruct your path towards a million dollar savings account. “You catch more bees with honey” is the key here. Act as if you’re truly indebted to them and you’re totally unaware of their loan-shark tactics and how the gutless wonders prey on the weak. Smooth talk them. It’s even okay to acquire an apologetic tone.

Tell them a white lie. You’re holding the bat, bases are loaded, there are two outs, it’s the bottom of the ninth, your team is down by three and it’s a full count. If you’re not a baseball fanatic, me neither, this simply means the lower portion of your anatomy is being pushed directly against the wall. Even though your bank is in New York, Pittsburgh or Los Angeles, the person you are speaking with could be anywhere from Bombay to Bangladesh or Hong Kong. Don’t worry, they savvy. Many credit card companies simply can’t afford to hire stateside so they look for new cultures to exploit. This takes some of the “mystery” out of our current economic climate, huh? INFORM them that a competing bank is offering you a better deal. Take off a percent or two or three. This isn’t so much “lying” as it is applying the same combat tactics your bank uses. Chances are, another bank is offereing you a lower rate but you were too eager to feed the paper shredder and never bothered to open the junk mail.

Thank them after they lower your rate. They’ll most likely offer this temporarily in hopes that you’ll forget to call back in six months. Jot down the date this “temporary finance rate” expires on your calendar so you’ll know when to go through this dance again. It’s their dance but you can take the lead.