How do you negotiate a lower interest rate with a creditor?
954806
You call.  You say I'm interested in finding out if there is anything you can do about my current APR.  \n\nThat's it.\n\nIf they hem and haw, say you got an offer from another credit card company for 0% APR for the life of the transfer.  That usually gets them moving.  \n\nBear in mind though, that you should at least have been making minimum payments for some time.  They will work with just about anyone but the better you are in paying your bills, yet keeping a balance, they better off you will be.  They don't want you to take your money elsewhere, but they do want to be sure they are going to see some of it someday.
753498
Why in the world would you let it get to there? Go and see the lender, explain the situation to them and volunteer to sell the house and ask them to put payments on hold pending sale. Your credit rating won't be perfect, but it will be a lot better than defaulting!
133083
Start with a mortgage broker.  Talk to your friends and/or family and have them refer one to you.  Talk with the loan officer and don't be afraid to ask questions.  Make sure you feel confident and comfortable with them.\n\nAlso, shop around for rates.  You owe it to yourself to get the lowest rate at the lowest possible costs.  Ask each person to give you a Good Faith Estimate and if they would be willing to lock the quoted rate same day.  (Rates can change throughout the day, so don't spend *too* much time shopping around).\n\nAlso, do not allow people to randomly pull your credit.  This will lower your score for several months, and excessive  inquiries may lower your score enough to disqualify you for the best possible rates and programs.\n\nMake sure you are 100% honest and up-front with your loan officer.  We can typically navigate through many problems, but the ones that surprise us can sink the ship.\n\nGood luck, and happy hunting!
762592
I work in the credit industry and there are several ways you can go about tackling this.  First off, take comfort in the knowledge that $6k is not a lot to owe, but if you don't pay it the right way, it will become a long term problem.\n\nStep one: contact your credit card companies and request that they lower your interest rate.  if you have been a good consumer they will most likely lower the rate... if you have not been paying on time and look like a risk, they will put up a fight... no matter what, do not give up on the idea that you can lower your interest rate...\n\nIf you have been on time tell them that you are considering obtaining a different card, and unless they can lower the rate you are simply going to transfer your balance to a new card and cancel the account.\n\nIf you have been bad at staying on time with your payments - then its time to get current and stay current.  After 6 months of being timely with your payments they will lower your APR.\n\n\nnext step is to develop a repayment plan... if you can out $200 per month toward the debt you should be done in under 3 yrs.  I would suggest that you set yourself up to pay your bills on line using an auto bill pay system, most banks offer this service free of charge and it is a quick way to have your payments go out.  Its also easy to track and manage.     Set yourself up to pay every 2 weeks.  ($6k means your monthly minimum is probably $120 - $135) try an set it so that you make this payment every time you get paid... the more money you can spare towards the debt the faster it will be paid off.\n\n\nIn the meantime you will also want to set up a household budget to see how much money is coming in and out of every dollar, how many pennies are being committed to bills.  Once you know what you have to work with it will be easier to plan out the upcoming months.\n\nIf you have a lot of extra cash that you can put toward the debt, make sure that you also set aside a reasonable amount into your savings account (if you have $150 that you can send to your card - send $130 and put $20 into savings) \n\nThe reason that you want to put money in savings is that you will begin to build up solvency - meaning that you won't have to rely on credit should some unexpected expense come up... (new tires, emergency repairs, etc)\n\nFinally, once you have paid off the debts, DO NOT STOP PAYING- only change where you are sending the money... what I mean is, put that $150 into your savings account so that you can start building up a bit of a nest egg.  Having accessable cash help to further stabilize your finances.  Everyone should have at least 6 months worth of living expenses available to them in their savings account.\n\nThis is an emergency fund that will prevent you from going back into debt should you lose your job, have to move or encounter a large expense down the road (want to buy a home, etc) \n\nThere are several professional services that can help such as Debt Management and Settlement Companies, but if you are responsible and can handle taking 3 hours a month to look over your situation you don't really need them.  Always be proactive with your debts, always look for ways to save.  With a little patience, self-control and determination you will be out of debt in no time.\n\nBest of luck to you.
635363
Tink, you might have to put your Roo's, Wallaby's and B-Rangs up as collateral too, so be prepared with all the paperwork before you venture to your villiage's banking hut.\n\n;-)   Ha, got ya again !\n\nSeriously, you might start on-line searching, but I would seriously only do that for general information.  The first step that you should take would be to get a copy of your most recent credit reports ... I'm not sure about what organizations to contact on the "Big Isle", but your local bank can help you there.  Here in the 1st world (got ya again), we have three major credit bureau's and we can get one free credit report per year.\n\nThe point is, that if you have something bad or old on there that shouldn't be, you'll want to get that cleaned up first, or at least initiate the request to get it cleaned up (have the paperwork with you).  The credit score will be hugely important in what interest you pay for a debt-consolodation loan.\n\nThere are a number of non-profit debt organizations here in the states ... there are also a number of "Paid intermediaries" ... there is a big difference.  If they have a website and it's www.SOMETHING.org, it's a non-profit.  Stick with them.  They will be able to not only help you locate a reputable lender with a decent rate, but can also help you work out other arrangements with credit card companies, etc.\n\nCredit companies are actually very willing to reduce the interest rate on your balance if you go through such a place.  By doing so, you are demonstrating that you are interested in paying things off and very often, you'll set up an automatic payment plan directly from your bank account ... the amount of the payments will be collaborated with you, the organization helping you and them.\n\nPut it this way ... the interest rates you pay are based on the costs of funds (i.e. the market interest rate) plus a risk premium.  In such a case as this, you've significantly reduced their risk of default by setting up automatic payments and have demonstrated a willingness to repay so that's where the rate reduction comes from.\n\nIt's sort of common sense to pay off the highest interest cards first (remember that you should pay the minimums on all of them to avoid racking up late fees and damaging your credit), however, that may not really be THE ONLY best solution for some folks.  Assume that you 5 bills with balances of $5,000 / $600 / $200 / $150 / $125 ... rather than paying the mininum on all of them and then taking the "left over" available cash and dumping it all onto the highest rate one, consider an alternative:  Pay the minimums and then take what you can afford to thow elsewhere and put it on the one with the smallest balance.\n\nThis way, in a month or two, you'll only have four bills.  Then three bills, then two bills, etc.  In reality, for most people, it's easier to manage that way for several reasons.  1)  You have very tangible proof that you're making progress that you can sink your crooked teeth (got you again) into ... there's a sort of satisfaction there, "Finally, got rid of that one!" ... You attention get's more and more focused on just the one or two left ... 2)  You'll have time to establish regular payments on the big ones as well so your credit report will reflect this as well as the number of open accounts decreasing.\n\nAfter you've paid one off, CLOSE IT !!!! The number of open accounts affects your score even if there is no balance on them.  This will positively affect your credit score much more than uniformly decreasing the balance on all of them (people don't know this)\n\nSo:  Step 1:  Find out how you can get a copy of your credit report(s) and get them.  Do this first as it will take some time for them to arrive to you.   2:  Do some research to find a non-profit debt consolodation organization in your area and talk to a few of them.  3:
912182
It's nice you want to start off "clean" but of course the only way to do that is to square things up with the creditors. $2000. feels like alot but truly it's not and you MAY be able to get most of it reduced to 50-60% by making them an offer. \nThe delinquient payments for over 1 year have already killed your credit rating so you have nothing to lose in a negotiation with them.\n\nYou might even find out that the balances were so low that the creditors reported you as a charge-off. Which means they totally do not expect to see payments on the debts.\n\nYou'll never know unless you pull a new credit report.\n\nBest of luck to you.
801488
The first thing you need to do is get a job. Once you have money coming in talk to your creditor and try to work out a repayment schedule. Don't ignore them. Once you make an agreement with them make sure you stick with it and pay more if you can. You may be able to work out a lower amount to pay them or a reduced interest rate, but make sure you get any agreement in writing. You have already damaged your credit, but it isn't anything which cannot be corrected. Unless you straighten this out you may find it difficult to find a better paying job when you graduate from college. Some companies will check your credit before making a decision to hire an applicant.
1136726
See if there is someone else you can pair up with who has better credit and/or can help w/ down payment. (e.g. significant other, parent, family member)  This would help reduce interest rates which will prob be very high w/ poor credit.
635841
Just call and ask them to lower your rate. You will be suprized at how easy it is. It will not affect your credit rating at all.
74708
Whatever the "average" interest rate is, I'm not sure why you're interested.  I would think you'd be looking for the lowest rate.\n\nIf that's what you're interested in, I suggest you find a credit untion near you that you qualify to join and apply for your loan there.\n\nThe next best way to get a low interest loan is by using collateral like with a car or home equity loan.  Do you have a car or home with equity that you can use as collateral for a loan?
729576
No, but its not very sensible as you are continuing to mount up interest charges.  Contact them and see if you can come to some arrangement which will make it easier to pay.  \nDONT IGNORE IT ANY LONGER!!!!
973690
Just keep making the payments until it's paid off.  When you can, put any extra money towards the principle to lower the amount of interest you pay.  It will help build your credit so future interest rates for you should be lower as long as you paid on-time, everytime.  Chalk it up to a lesson learned - most of us have been there.  \n\nSince you are upside down, it's unlikely you could sell it.  \n\nDon't go to a place that will "wrap up the payments" with your current car into a new car loan.  You are only paying the difference of over a longer period of time.  That leads to a vicious cycle of always being upside down on your loans.  \n\nThe last is to join a Credit union and refinance it to ease your monthly payment, but that's a long shot as they rarely finance more that it's worth.
324593
A broker is your best bet as they can shop between all the banks for you to find the best rates.  Rates are as low as 1% on adjustible ARMs and 5.5% on fixed rates.  Let me know if I can help.
862347
Find a different card that offers a lower interest rate and transfer the balance to that one.\n\nCoach
1017288
Speaking as a 19 year old who somehow acquired $3000 worth of debt through an American Express card, I might be able to help...\n\nI say shop around for the lowest interest/APR rates. I'm not sure which Visa, AmEx, Mastercard, etc are the lowest, but just be careful with your rates. Try to stay away from credit card agreements where the company can raise your rate at any time, because that will screw you over in the long run.\n\nJust keep in mind that you SHOULD NOT GO CRAZY with a credit card. Its not free money. Think of it as a loan every time you purchase something. ...Sorry if this sounds like a lecture, but like I said before, I learned the hard way :-)
1005024
Welcome to the latest credit card "gotcha".....it's call UNIVERSAL DEFAULT....screw up on one credit card, one loan, and have a low credit rating....at any time....and they find out....they can increase your interest rate.....get your statement from a couple of months ago and compare the interest rate to the current.....\n\n\nFirst, go to annualreport.com....pull your free credit report and pay the $8 or 9 bucks to get your fico score....if its above 620, you can call and argue.....if your history w/ them is good, you might have a shot.....BE POLITE......Tell them you are a great customer because you carry your balance and are never late....whatever...BE POLITE, but insistent.
69521
go through a credit counseler to reduce intrest allowing to be paid faster and increasing score