A Capital One customer claims that she was able to get a refund on several months’ worth of credit card interest just by asking nicely.
Creator Natalie Eberhart (@nat.eberhart) shared her story on TikTok on Dec. 4, getting more than 2.1 million views as of Tuesday morning.
“This is your reminder that sometimes all you have to do is ask for things and you will get them,” she begins her 30-second story on the platform.
“I just called my credit card company, Capital One, to ask if they could lower my interest rate, because you can do that,” she added. “Sometimes they work with you, and my interest rate’s at like 25% right now.”
While Capital One did not agree to that, they did tell her they’d refund her the last three months of interest that she paid.
“The call was literally four minutes long and I just got back hundreds of dollars,” she shared to close the video.
Why is this a big deal?
Interest on credit cards, especially on a card with a substantial interest rate like the one she described, can accumulate quickly.
“If your card has an APR [annual percentage rate] of 16%, the daily rate would be 0.044%,” an Investopedia article explains. “If you had an outstanding balance of $500 on the first day, you would incur $0.22 in interest that day, for a total of $500.22 on the second day. That process continues until the end of the month. If you had a balance of $500 at the beginning of the month and added no other charges, you would end up with a balance of $506.60, including interest.”
The article notes that “paying off a credit card balance is much like getting a guaranteed rate of return on your investment” equivalent to whatever the interest rate on your card is.
But a great number of people don’t pay off balances on time, and credit card interest is contributing to $1.166 trillion of debt, according to a LendingTree article.
That article observes, “Credit card balances have risen by $396 billion since the first quarter of 2021, when credit card debt bottomed out at $770 billion during the pandemic. That’s a 51% increase in 3 1/2 years.”
What commenters said
The video brought forth several other success stories from commenters.
“I did this with Discover!!” one shared. “They lowered my interest rate from 21 to 9!
“TikTok teaches me more than any school I ever went to,” another said. “Just called and got mine lowered for 24% to 19%. Not great but better than nothing.”
Not everyone had a similar success story. One reported, “I tried this with Synchrony for my TJX card and they said kick rocks lol.”
One called Chase about a high interest rate and said, “I called and they said my interest rate is the lowest that they have. It’s 28.24.”
Another, after calling Capital One, reported, “Literally I tried to set up a payment plan with Capital One and their plan was for me to make the minimum payment each month.”
But for some, just calling up and asking worked wonders. As one said, “I saw a TikTok about this two weeks ago. I immediately contacted my bank and have 0% interest on my credit card for 12 months.”
@nat.eberhart Just ask!!! #creditcard #interest #capitalone ♬ original sound – natalie
The Daily Dot has reached out to Eberhart via email and TikTok direct message and to Capital One via email.
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