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 saw his 14.99 percent rate reduced to zero for six months. That''s quite a deal. citibank Another platinum cardholder saw mastercard the APR on her credit account 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 citibank rate," 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 platinum so many of their customers? For mastercard one thing, competition in citibank the credit account industry is fierce. If you''re a good customer, platinum a card company is going to want to hang on to you.

The first, and most pronounced, is the release mastercard of favorable economic news and inflation data. In short, despite the spike in oil prices, inflation came in below expectations, as measured by both the Consumer Price Index and the core-CPI. The core reading citibank removes the effects of volatile energy and food prices, but the overall CPI does not. testimony before Congress on April 17 raised continued concerns over the continued level of business and consumer spending. However, he also voiced confidence that the current low level of inflation removes the need to boost rates anytime soon. So the platinum low-rate environment that has prevailed over the past 17 months is in no danger of coming to an immediate end.Second, a report mastercard released this week by Banc One citibank Investment Advisors reports that American consumers have a higher debt burden now than at the end of prior recessions, platinum and mastercard and that this burden is the highest in 15 years. This isn''t surprising, but instead validates the suspicions of many.

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