Personal Finance

Here's one easy way to pay less to your credit card company

Key Points
  • Even though interest rates were rising in the last year, 81% of cardholders who asked for a lower rate got it.
  • Most of the reductions were between 5 and 6 percentage points.
  • Even more consumers — 87% — were successful getting a late-payment fee removed, and 67% had their annual fee waived.

Want to pay less to your credit card company? Make a phone call.

While most cardholders have not requested a break on either interest rates or fees recently, the majority of those who did ask were successful, a new survey shows.

In the past year — a time when interest rates were rising — 81% of cardholders who asked for a lower rate got it, and most got a reduction of between 5 and 6 percentage points, according to research from CompareCards.com.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

For late-payment fees, 87% were successful getting them eliminated, and 67% got their annual fee waived (24% were given a reduced annual fee).

"I was surprised that the chances of success are sky-high for every break we asked people about," said Matt Schulz, chief industry analyst at CompareCards.com, which polled more than 1,000 people for its survey.

However, about three-quarters of respondents have not asked for any sort of reduced rate or waived fee, even as the amount of debt they carry — and the cost to finance it — has continued to climb.

You may be paying off your credit card debt wrong—here’s the best way
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You may be paying off your credit card debt wrong—here’s the best way

The nation's credit card tab has reached $944 billion, according to NerdWallet. The average interest rate is about 17.7%, separate data from CreditCards.com shows. That compares to about 15.2% three years ago.

Since 2016, the Federal Reserve has made eight increases to a key interest rate that affects consumer debt. It recently indicated that rates won't move higher this year unless economic conditions change.

Nevertheless, getting your interest rate down is a key way to reduce the cost of carrying a balance month to month.

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In the CompareCards study, the average rate reduction that survey participants had been able to get was 6 percentage points. The median — half fell above, half below — was about 5 percentage points.

Say you have a balance of $5,000 on a card that charges you 24% in interest and you pay $250 a month. It would take 26 months to pay off and you'd pay about $1,450 in interest. If you could get that rate to 18%, you'd save more than $450 in interest and pay it off two months earlier, the study shows.

Schulz pointed out that if you already are paying a lower-than-average interest rate, it's less likely you'll get a huge reduction. You can also explore 0% deals, which typically charge you an upfront fee but no interest for a certain amount of time.

And, because the poll was random, Schulz said the success rate is likely not limited to consumers with high credit scores.

"That's a really positive sign and a good indicator that even folks with not-perfect credit should take time to ask," he said. "Otherwise you could end up paying more to your credit card company than you probably need to."