All About Credit Cards

A friend of mine recently received a postcard in the mail from Discover. Inside, it said that his standard APR was about to double - from 12% to almost 21%! This was preposterous to him, so he picked up the phone and gave Discover a ring.

Rep: “Discover credit card services. How can I help you?”
Friend: “Yes, I just received a postcard saying my APR has doubled. I’ve always paid my bill on time and have been a customer for years. Why did my rate suddenly increase so much?”
Rep: “(looking at the account) Yes…I see that you received that card in the mail. Let me transfer you to a Credit Specialist.”

At this point, my friend was quite worried that something was wrong. Why else would he need a “credit specialist”?

The so-called “specialist” gets on the phone:
“Hello, how can I help you?”
Friend: “Hi, I’m calling about the postcard that’s raising my rate. Can you give me reasons why you did this?”
Credit rep: “Oh (checking the account) we can keep your rate where it is…”
Friend (being quite nice): “Well, actually, it’d be even better if you could lower it.”
Credit rep: “Sure we can do that - how about we take you from 12% to 10%?”
Friend (ecstatic): “That’d be terrific, thank you!”

So, the card was mostly checking to see if their customers actually read their postal mail. In this case, it actually benefited the customer, because the rate was lowered. Granted, it did take some time out of my friend’s day, but he saved himself from a drastic increase in APR, and actually ended up with something better!