Did You Make the Cut?

Almost 20 years ago, I bought a used van with very low miles, under 30,000, but it had a salvaged title. The alternator went out on it and I had to be towed to the tune of $175.00, cheap by today’s standards. Anyway, because it was a salvaged title, it was no longer covered by manufacturer’s warranty, so I paid for a new alternator out of pocket (ouch), but I wrote a letter to the auto manufacturer explaining my towing-bill dilemma. Guess what? They sent me a check to cover the cost of the towing.

What’s the point, you say? It is this: It never hurts to ask.

Back on September 5 and 19, 2019 I wrote blog posts about credit cards and how they work. Feel free to review them: “Knowthe Difference,” and “CanYou Handle It?” In the latter post, I assigned some very telling homework, and, I suggested that you shred all your plastic if you couldn’t “handle it.”

This leads me to the clever title of my blog post. Okay, I’ll explain it to you.

If you heeded the advice in my almost-two-year-old-debt-hating-diatribe, you should have made a “cut” of some kind. Perhaps you figured out that you can, indeed, manage a credit card with the utmost integrity and responsibility (upon review it means NEVER paying interest because you ALWAYS pay the balance monthly IN ITS ENTIRETY with money you already have ON HAND and have BUDGETED for those purchases). Good for you! You made the grade. But then again, perhaps you used the scissors.

If you are in the latter group, I really have to give you some credit (another pun, I’m on a roll!), here. It’s a difficult thing to do. But you will be better for it in the long run. If you are in the former group (and are currently working on ELIMINATING all debt, including this credit card), this hack is specifically for you.

Give your credit card company (there really should be only ONE) a call and ask them for a rate reduction. Like my intro story indicates, it never hurts to ask.