Originally Posted by MrFurious
I've been a bad boy and actually have a balance on my Citibank AAdvantage card. In the past, I've gotten the APR dropped to 7.99%. However, I like lower APRs and don't know the best way to get it lowered, especially since in the past I've had CSRs on the phone say, wow, we've never seen it that low. I've put close to $12k worth of personal spending on the card this year, so it gets used a lot.
I'll have the card for 3 years this December if that makes any matter. Any tips/tricks to make Citibank work for me for a change would help.
Thanks, MF
Keeping the balance on your mileage earning card negates (and then some) the value of the miles you earn on new purchases.
Meanwhile, 7.99% is already a very good rate to have an EXISTING card give you on an EXISTING balance.
Typically, you only get better (as low as 0%!) for balance TRANSFERS, and that would have to be with a card from someone other than Citibank (since you can never do such promo balance transfers between cards with the same bank).
If you think you'll pay off the balance within 6 months, I would recommend you'd get one of those not-so-hard-to-find 0% for 6 months "teaser" rates with a new card (assuming your credit is good enough to get a new card with enough credit to do the whole balance). Juniper (
www.juniper.com), for example, still has 0% 6 month offers tied, at the very least, to its no-annual-fee Best Western and Frontier Airlines cards.
If you think it'll take longer, ask a DIFFERENT bank whose card you have (that you have no balance on and don't use regularly, if you have such card) as to what promo rate they can give you for a balance transfer until the balance is paid off. I've seen at least 5.99% or maybe even less from BankOne and/or Chase (who are about to be the same company). They typically offer a lowest rate for a limited time (like 6 or 8 months) and then a slightly higher rate (but usually still under 7.99% if you have good credit) if you want it for the life of the balance.
It's always better to keep the card on which you have a balance and the card on which you earn miles as separate cards, because if you keep making purchases on the card that has a balance you're paying interest every day on all purchases old and new, while if you keep them separate you only pay interest on the old balance and pay no interest on new purchases as long as you pay in full by the due date each month. (When you suddenly have a big amount due some month that you can't pay in full, it's thus always be ready to transfer it somewhere else, rather than leave it on the card where you'll continue to make purchases.)