The call that might lower your credit card interest — and the script some consumers are feeding their bank to try and negotiate

The Call Kurtis consumer investigative team with CBS13 in Sacramento, California, created a script that consumers could use when calling their credit card company. Jadell Lee of Sacramento — who owes US$34,000 on nine credit cards, some with an APR of close to 30% — gave the experiment a try with three of his credit cards (1).

While two of the credit card companies said there wasn’t anything they could do, another offered him an option of 0% interest for 12 months on anything he purchased during that period. “I can focus on paying down credit card debt, and not thinking that 28% — whatever the balance is — gets caked on each month. I’ll take it,” he told CBS13 (1).

Trapped in a cycle of debt

Credit card rates in Canada have an average APR ranging from 19.99% to 25.99% (2). But those with a bad credit score could end up paying closer to 30% (3).

Higher rates can leave you trapped in a cycle of debt, where more of your money goes toward paying off interest than paying down the principal. This means it will take that much longer to chip away at your balance. And, if you’re only able to make minimum payments, your debt keeps ballooning.

To put that into perspective, Credit Canada cites the example of a C$4,000 balance on a credit card with an APR of 25%. While that adds up to $1,000 in interest at year’s end, the math gets a bit more complicated once you factor in compounding (4).

Most credit card lenders compound interest daily (which means taking your APR and dividing it by 365 days). In the Credit Canada example, the daily interest would be about 0.0685%.

“By the end of the month, you’d have well over $80 in interest added, and the growth rate of that interest would increase every day since the interest charged would be based on the new, higher total (4)."

In fact, the average Canadian credit card balance in Q3 2025 was $4,652, up 1.97% from the same period last year (5).

And this is taking a toll. More than half of Canadians (55%) feel anxious about their personal finances, according to a United Way Centraide Financial Anxiety Survey conducted by Léger: 42% say they’d only be able to cover basic expenses for less than one month if they lost their main source of income (6).

Yet, many cardholders don’t realize rates can sometimes be negotiable — or they assume banks will automatically say no. But even a small reduction in interest rates can translate into hundreds or thousands of dollars saved over time.

How (and when) to negotiate a better rate

The Call Kurtis consumer investigative team came up with a script that consumers can use when calling their credit card company. It starts by asking about your current interest rate, and then saying: “I’ve been a loyal customer. I’ve noticed other banks are offering lower interest rates. Even zero percent on balance transfers. I was curious how low you can get my interest rate (7)."

Start with the credit card issuer you’ve had the longest history with — particularly if you’ve consistently paid your bills on time. Conversely, you can also try to start with the one that has the highest interest rate.