-WJLA Script-

Anchor:
The credit card crunch couldn't come at worse time for retailers and shoppers but don't despair. Seven On Your Side provides some valuable relief.

Ross McLaughlin is here with details.

Ross McLaughlin:
The banks are clamping down on credit cards, increasing interest rates adding fees and capping credit, but we've written up a secret formula that could save you thousands of dollars in minutes.

Story:
Ross: "Hi, you want to try an experiment with us...lower your interest rate?"

WHAT? NO ONE'S BITING.

Ross: "We're doing a story about lowering your credit card interest rate...interested in giving it a try?"

Man: "Uh, no..."

Ross: "No?"

MAYBE THEY DON'T REALIZE HOW HARD THEY'RE ABOUT TO BE HIT.

Ross: "Ladies you want to try something?"

BUT... Richard Hurney: "Past due amount was 40 cents..."

RICHARD HURNEY DOES. HE WAS SUPPOSED TO PAY $405.40 MINIMUM PAYMENT ON HIS CREDIT CARD,

INSTEAD HE PAID 405...THAT'S JUST A 40 CENT MISTAKE AND IT'S ALL CITIBANK NEEDED.

Richard Hurney: "You did not make your payment you defaulted on your credit account."

15 YEARS IN GOOD STANDING MEANT NOTHING. HIS INTEREST RATE SHOT UP 12 PERCENT ADDING 250 DOLLARS A MONTH TO HIS MINIMUM PAYMENT.

Richard Hurney: "They would not honor that as a mistake."

AND THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE...

Ross: "You want to give this a try?"

YOU'VE GOT TO GET PUSHY.

Ross: "You can call them and get it down lower."

LET'S TRY A DIFFERENT APPROACH.

Ross: "Do you want to save some money?"

THE MAGIC WORDS.

Ross: "You want to try it?"

Claude Furman: "Yeah, let's give it a try."

Ross: "I want to show you something, come on."

WE'VE GOT THE SECRET SCRIPT TO SUCCESS. A HOW TO GUIDE TO LOWER YOUR CREDIT CARD INTEREST RATE. STEP ONE...ASK.

Claude Furman: "I want to know if this interest rate should be or could be lower?"

Elaine Shugol: "I want to talk to you about my rate for my credit card..."

THEY'LL SAY NO. STEP TWO ASK FOR A SUPERVISOR.

Claude Furman: "I'd like to speak to a supervisor of some kind."

Elaine Shugol: "Could you transfer me to somebody else that could talk about this?"

WELL, THEY MAY SO NO TO THAT, TOO.

Ross: "What did they say?"

Claude Furman: "That they can't do anything and the supervisor won't do anything about it either."

Elaine Shugol: "I know...heard from a friend that they can get a lower interest rate."

STEP 3 INSIST ON SUPERVISOR.

Claude Furman: "I want to speak to a supervisor anyway."

Ross: "ask for a supervisor..."

Elaine Shugol: "They said it won't matter."

Ross: "Just do it anyway, ask for a supervisor."

Elaine Shugol: "Could you do it anyway?"

THEN MAKE YOUR CASE AGAIN. STEP 4 CONGRATULATONS...

Ross: "that's a 75 percent reduction from what your paying..."

Claude Furman: "Yeah, isn't that so unbelievable? The first guy said no and that the supervisor would say no...and couldn't do such a thing."

Elaine Shugol: "13.99 to 10.99..."

Ross: "So you did get a savings..."

Elaine Shugol: "I did get a savings, I was looking for the 4.99 so you've saved me money. That's wonderful.

Ross McLaughlin:
This really works look at all of these names..claude the guy you saw in our story estimates his new rate of 4.9 percent will save him at least 2 grand on his existing balance.

It pays to know your stuff. I got the a fixed rate 2.9 percent someone who didn't give their name got the biggest drop 29.99 percent with promotional zero interest. Now if all these people carried an average daily balanced of a grand over the year their combined savings, more than $1,600. ($1676.30)

Thanks to Montgomery Mall for working with us on this. CLICK HERE for the "how to" script. You can post your success stories there or on our blog.

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