Our friends over at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity recently posted about ” 7 Unwritten & Often Forgotten Credit Card Secrets”. There is some great information in that post and I would encourage everyone to take a look. Here is a quick summary of the “secrets”:

1. Just ask: Lower interest, reduce or eliminate fees -It’s amazing what a card company is willing to do when they think they may lose you as a customer.

2. Roll credit limits of the same issuer onto fewer cards -I’ve done this one often. It is a lot easier to manage a single card with a $20,000 limit than 4 cards with $5,000 limits.

3. Request an increase to the credit limit without a credit pull - Do this through the card’s website. Remember a hard credit pull will decrease your credit score.

4. Capital One & Discover don’t have a foreign transaction fee charge - True, but has anyone ever found somewhere overseas that actually takes Discover?

5. Change your card to a different type or rewards program - Card companies always change up programs, so if you aren’t satisfied with your current program try to change to something else.

6. Most cards double manufacturer’s warranty

7. Most cards offer auto rental liability insurance

However, probably the best nugget of wisdom was the following reminder about credit card companies:

1. They exist to make as much money as possible,
2. They have relatively well documented rules and operating procedures,
3. They’re willing to break #2 in pursuit of #1.

Keep this in mind when calling up customer service.

This entry was posted on October 11, 2007 at 9:25 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Credit Cards by BillyOceansEleven 1 Comment