Page 80 - Winning The Credit Game Bundle (CK Patrick)

68 THE CREDIT GAME

Remember, you don’t want to get a higher credit limit because you
want to be able to charge $10,000 on your credit card—that would
harm your credit! You want to get a higher limit so that you can have
more credit available to you in case an emergency leaves you with no
other way to pay for things, and so that you can charge more on your
account without going over the 10% limit for ideal credit usage that
makes your score look great. 30% is the absolute max in case you have
to tend to a larger purchase or emergency.
You might get a $10,000 credit limit and never charge more than
$1,000 at once on that card. That’s actually ideal. But because your
credit limit is so high, you can charge a whole $1,000 on there without
taking a big hit to your credit score due to high utilization, and you
have a whole $10,000 in credit to fall back on if something really bad
happens and there’s just no other way to put food on the table for a
few months.
And once you’ve got a great interest rate on that card, anything you
charge on it will cost you much less than it would have cost to pay for
with a payday loan or a higher-interest card.
Once your credit score has gone up, making you a more desirable
player than you were before, here are some telephone scripts you can
use to call your credit card company and ask for better terms:

LOWER INTEREST RATE TELEPHONE SCRIPT

YOU: Hello, I’d like to lower the APR on my credit card, please.
CREDIT CARD REP: May I ask why?
YOU: I’ve been a loyal customer to you for X years. Also, I’ve paid
my bill in full and on time for the past few months/years. I know a
few other credit cards offering better rates than what I’m getting right
now, and I’d hate for this interest rate to drive me away from your
service. What can you do for me?
CREDIT CARD REP: Hmm. Let me check…Ms. Patrick, I just
discovered that I am able to lower your rate from 15% to 12%. Will this
work?