Is request for lower interest rate a negative on score?

by SpankyDan
(St. Louis, MO)

I have a friend who has about 80k in credit card debt. He has a FICO score of 650, but he needs to lower the rate on several of his cards. Would there be a negative impact to his score as a result of requesting a lower rate from the card companies, or maybe request a payment plan? What other unwelcome implications would there be as a result of this request?

Comments for Is request for lower interest rate a negative on score?

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Sep 03, 2010
 large credit card debt
by: Gerri & Mary

While some credit card issuers are willing to negotiate lower interest rates, as your friend has no doubt discovered, it can be difficult to do that if you have a low credit score and high balances.

$80000 is a lot of credit card debt and we assume he's having trouble making any headway paying it off. he could certainly try meeting with a credit counseling agency to see whether they can help him get lower interest rates, but he's going to have to be able to pay back the full debts plus interest in five years or less.

He may have better luck trying to negotiate settlements with his creditors if he is able to come up with enough to settle. The effect on his credit scores will be significant but at least to be able to put this step behind him. He may want to listen to our debt settlement podcast.

Whenever someone is considering negotiating their debts, we also encourage them to at least get a free consult with a bankruptcy attorney to find out whether that might be a better route to go. He may not even want to go down that road, but with that amount of debt he could be a candidate for a lawsuit from a creditor or collector, and he'll want to at least know find out what all the options are .

We hope this helps. Feel free use the comments section for any follow-up. It's great that you're trying to help your friend through this difficult time.

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