Thank You, Consumerist, For Easing Chase's Credit Strangehold On Me

Is reducing your credit card debt one of your goals for 2010? You’re in the right place. Josh used information that he found on Consumerist to significantly reduce his credit card interest rates and help him and his wife on their way to freedom from debt.

I just wanted to say thank you for a recent article about
“Chase Executive Customer Service Drops APR From 26% To 9%” This proved to be so helpful to me. I have not been the best Consumerist reader as I accumulated some debt before and after my wedding (To be honest I wasn’t to aware of Consumerist until after my wedding). Prior to that I had always used my credit card responsibly, charging a little and paying it all off every month. After the wedding and a lot of changes I hadn’t realized how much debt I had collected. Soon my APR was skyrocketing from carrying a high balance and having gone over my limit (I know I know, for shame!). It got as high as 29%! Your site gave me a few tips but the lowest I could get it down to was 27.99%.

Then this article came out last week and it was exactly what I needed! I followed Eric’s same steps and I emailed gordon.smith@chase.com and pleaded my case for help. That same day at 5 o’clock I get a call from Kurt in Executive Customer support and he tells me they will lower the APR on my existing balance from 27.99% to 14.99% for a promotional one year period. This doesn’t apply to new purchase just my debt as it stands now. So it’s not 9% but after dealing with 27.99% for over a year to have it cut in half is a huge relief! This will help my wife and myself to be done with this debt at least two to three months sooner than we thought.

I’ve really learned a lot from your site over the past two years and I just wanted to express my appreciation for the good work you all do. My wife and I are currently using the “snowball method” for our debt. We’ve had trouble trying the other methods and finding success with them. This method is the toughest but the best for us. In the last 2 months we’ve reduced our debt by $1,800. I find it to be the most gratifying method we’ve tried and yields the quickest results. I hope to email you all again once we are completely debt free (and staying that way).

Well done, Josh! We’re glad that we could help.

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.