Make the call.

A five-minute phone call to your credit card issuer could save you hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in interest charges.

"There's no incentive for them to lower your rate unless you call. The squeaky wheel gets the oil," says Brad Dakake, a consumer advocate with Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group.

Not convinced that a credit card company will give you a lower interest rate just because you call and ask nicely?

Proof in a survey
Check out the results of a national survey conducted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in March 2002. Fifty consumers of all credit backgrounds called credit card issuers and asked for lower rates. More than half, 56 percent, scored lower rates.

How low did the rates go? The 28 consumers who landed lower rates saw the APRs on their cards drop from an average of 16 percent to 10.47 percent.

Slicing interest rates by more than one-third by making a quick phone call is pretty impressive. A handful of consumers did exceptionally well. One cardholder from Colorado saw his 14.99 percent rate reduced to zero for six months. That's quite a deal.

Another cardholder from New Mexico saw the APR on her credit card drop from 31.12 percent to 14.65 percent. Until she called, she had no idea she'd been paying a penalty interest rate.

"She didn't realize that for six months she was paying this outrageous 31 percent interest rate," says Dakake, the principal author of the rate-reduction survey and study.

It can't hurt to ask
Why are card issuers so willing to cut interest rates for so many of their customers? For one thing, competition in the credit card industry is fierce. If you're a good customer, a card company is going to want to hang on to you.

"It costs them a couple hundred bucks to acquire a new customer and it's not so easy anymore," says Howard Strong, author of "What Every Credit Card User Needs to Know."

"They can afford to give consumers a break," Dakake says. "And they'll do it to keep your business."

Follow the script
While it's not quite a matter of ask and ye shall receive a lower credit card rate, it's pretty darn close. All the consumers who participated in the PIRG survey were given the following sample script.

Hi, my name is [Your Name]. I am a good customer, but I have received several offers in the mail from other credit card companies with lower APRs. I want a lower rate on my card, or I will cancel my card and switch companies.

And that's it. Even folks who dread confrontations ought to be able to handle that. You only need to be assertive for a matter of seconds.