Although credit card interest rates have been higher than they have throughout the last, few years, it is possible to still score a credit card with a low interest rate – you just have to fight for it.

Here’s how:

• Recent studies have shown that 29 percent of all people who contact their credit card about lowering their interest rate are successful. Although it may not seem like all that much, it begin to sounds much better when you realize that number equals nearly two-thirds.
• Before you begin making phone calls in an attempt to lower your credit card’s interest rate, make sure you are in the position to do so. In other words, if your credit score is strong you will have a much better chance of getting your credit card company to take a moment and listen to your request. If, on the other hand, your credit score isn’t exactly strong, you may want to save yourself the hassle of asking your credit card company to lower your rate.
• Be prepared to flex your muscle. In other words, have a few credit card offers beside you for bargaining power if your credit card company seems unwilling to lower your rate. If you have strong credit and other credit card offers lined up, your creditor may begin to take you more seriously and accommodate your request for a drop in your interest rate.
• If the customer service representative is not receptive to your request, it may pay off to ask to speak to a supervisor. You may have more success talking to a supervisor because they have the authority to make changes a customer service representative may not.
• If all else fails, cancel the card if your credit card company is not willing to accommodate your request. However, before you do this, make sure you have another approved credit card offer wrapped up. Often times, the threat of canceling the card will make the creditor pay more attention to your request.

In fact, you may have noticed an increase in the number of credit card offers you receive for rewards credit cards. If you look further into these offers, you will quickly notice that credit card companies are pulling out all the stops when it comes to their rewards card offerings, and some of these perks may be just what you’ve been looking for.

From thousands of extra airlines miles to merchandise discounts and gift cards, the new rewards credit cards are more appealing than ever.

Only Good Customers Need Apply

One major thing that has changed, however, is that credit card companies are only interested in consumers in good financial standing. So if you have a strong credit score, chances are you’ve been receiving your share of offers for rewards credit cards.

For example, CHASE Freedom is now offering $300 cash back if you spend $500 in three months. The Citi Forward card is similar, as it offers its customers 6,000 “Thank you” points for making $600 in purchases and singing up for their paperless billing. In addition, this card will give you another 1,200 points just for paying your bill on time and for not exceeding your credit limit.

Standing Out From the Crowd

The change in the credit card industry is likely because credit card companies are now looking for new and exciting ways to stand out from the crowd in the already-saturated rewards credit card market. And, after weathering the recession storm, credit card companies are now actively competing with one another for the best customers. In fact, in the first quarter of 2011, there were more than 1.4 billion credit card offers sent to consumers.

Recent data also shows that nearly 60 percent of credit card offers sent to consumers in the past quarter had some kind of incentive attached to it, such as cash back rewards, gift cards and bonus airline miles.

In short, it may be time to look a little closer at the next credit card offer you receive in the mail!

The fact is that the interest rate of a credit card is just one factor to consider when researching credit cards. Here is what you may want to consider when choosing a new credit card:

1. Interest Rate – OK, of course you will check the interest rate. But what may be just as important as the interest rate is the length and type of interest rate. First, if the card offers a low, promotional rate, make sure to pay close attention to the length of the promotional rate and, perhaps more importantly, the default interest rate once the promotional rate has ended. In addition, make sure the interest rate on the card is fixed – not variable – to save yourself from any surprises down the road.
2. Billing Cycle – A generous billing cycle should be an important consideration when choosing a new credit card. This is because you want to be assured that you will have sufficient time to make payments each month without incurring finance charges on your previous month’s purchases. Although the CARD Act has set limitations regarding billing cycles, it is still quite common to see small variations regarding billing cycles and grace periods, so don’t overlook this feature.
3. Rewards – If you want a credit card with rewards, you must do your homework and read the fine print! Rewards credit cards are NOT created equal, and there are a huge number of differences between cards. It is therefore important to read and understand all of the features associated with a rewards card before accepting the terms and conditions of the card.
4. Annual fee – If you want a no-frills, competitive-rate credit card, you will likely not need to pay an annual fee for using the card. However, you may notice that many of today’s rewards cards come with annual fees. Don’t automatically toss any credit card offers that charge an annual fee, though, as the rewards aspect of the card may be well worth the small, annual fee. In other words, consider all features of a card before discounting a card because of an annual fee.

Many of the country’s biggest credit card companies have begun using marketing techniques to appeal to certain customers online. In fact, they are using the shopping habits of customers to offer them customized, online offers.

Customized Offers Tailored to your Specific Habits

In other words, don’t be surprised that the next credit card offer that pops up while you’re surfing the web has been specifically targeted to you, based on your shopping habits. Credit card companies are now able to target individuals in a more precise manner; thereby allowing them to offer customers offers that best suit them.

Instead of the blanket credit card offers typically put out on the web, credit card companies are now doing a much better job targeting information, while still protecting their users’ privacy. It is now quite common, for example, for a creditor to offer a rewards credit card to you if you’re a frequent traveler. Based on your Internet surfing habits, they will be able to take a guess at your income and your interests, thereby allowing them to create a truly customized credit card offer.

Credit Card Companies Marketing Tactics Becoming Sophisticated

The credit card companies’ ability to track your spending and surfing habits has become much, much more sophisticated over the last 12 to 24 months, says Rob Shavell, co-founder of Abine Inc., a privacy software company.

Some companies are now able to compile large databases that store information on everything from your Internet browsing history, your “cookies” from other websites, and even “third party calls,” which is essentially information about you that is exchanged with outside websites.

One of the newest ways in which credit card companies are obtaining your personal spending information is through a technology called “device fingerprinting,” which provides companies with information about the computer you’re on, and the correlation between you and other people.

Some consumers enjoy having credit card offers tailored to them, while others may find this to be an invasion of privacy. If you want to avoid being targeted for marketing purposes, the best thing you can do is delete your computer’s Internet history and cookies regularly.

• Your current credit card company – Many times, if you have proven yourself to be a good credit card customer, you can negotiate better terms on your current credit card with your credit card company. In fact, most of the time it is best to be able to negotiate more attractive terms for an existing credit card account, as it saves you the time and hassle of opening up a new account. Check the current interest rates on some of the newer card offers (you can easily find this information online),  and then go to your credit card company and either ask for a lower rate or negotiate other terms, such as a balance transfer offer.
• Your bank – Many times, your local bank may be able to offer you a great deal on a new credit card. In fact, you may be more likely to snag a good offer because you are a current bank account holder. If you have a solid history with your bank and you want to take advantage of some of the low rates and competitive terms of today, give your bank a call.
• Your mailbox – Credit card companies are sending out more credit card offers than they have in almost two years. Just a quick peek inside your mailbox and it’s easy to see that credit card companies are becoming more aggressive in their quest for new credit card customers.  A great way to get in on some of the great terms and conditions of today’s credit card is to simply set aside the credit card offers you receive on any given week and look through them to determine which card best suits your financial situation and budget.

It’s no wonder, then, that many consumers put their credit cards away. From high unemployment to lenders simply cutting some consumers off, millions of consumers had no choice but to find other ways of paying.

However, some industry analysts see 2011 as a year of change for the credit card industry and consumer spending, in general. In short, it looks as if credit card spending will, once again, see a resurgence, and the debit card industry, which has reigned supreme over the last, couple years, will begin to shrink.

Let’s take a look at a few factors that may change the way we spend in the upcoming year:

• With a stabilizing economy comes consumer confidence. A stabilizing economy, in addition to new jobs, typically spells consumer relief. In other words, if consumers think the economy is getting better, chances are they will begin spending again. And, because there are many indications that employment levels will see a surge in 2011 — Wells Fargo’s Annual Economic Outlook for 2011 shows that employment reports will be positive by the middle of the year and TransUnion reports that that both credit card and mortgage loan delinquencies will experience double-digit free falls — it only makes sense that credit card spending will increase as a result.

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• Competition has begun gaining momentum in the credit card industry, once again. Proof of this is probably sitting in your mailbox right now. If you think you’ve been receiving a lot of credit cards as of late, that is because you probably are. In particular, consumers with good credit are now being bombarded by attractive credit card offers. In fact, according to the marketing research firm, Mintel Compermedia, consumers received about 1.2 billion credit card offers during the third week of 2010, compared with 391 million offers from the same time a year prior.

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• Creditors are upping the stakes when it comes to rewards. In short, expect to see plenty of great rewards programs, provided you have the credit that attracts the attention of the credit card companies. In fact, eight out of every 10 credit cards being offered today comes with some type of rewards program.

• Can you pay off the loan without prepayment penalties?

You will need to study the terms of your installment loan before transferring the balance over to a credit card, as you could end up paying a large, prepayment penalty, which could negate any benefits you may receive from a credit card. It is best to contact the lender to see what type of which you have. In particular, ask them for a payout amount. Once you have that amount, multiply the number of payments remaining on the loan by the loan payment each month to see if the payoff amount is lower than the total payments. If not, you can assume the lender will charge you for the total interest amount and it may not make sense financially to transfer the loan to a credit card.

• Do the benefits of the credit card make good financial sense?

You may be tempted to take advantage of a zero-percent balance transfer, must you must look further into the offer. Credit card companies draw customers in with tempting, zero-percent offers but, in reality, this rate is merely a promotional rate and will only last for a short period of time – usually 12 months or less. If you can pay off the loan during this promotional time, then you will likely make out on promotional rate; however, if you can’t, it is important to look at the card’s default rate, the rate that will come into play once the promotional rate has ended. In addition, pay close attention to balance transfer fees, which can be as much as five percent of the transferred balance.

In short, you must do the math when it comes to transferring an installment loan to a credit card.

You may be receiving more credit card offers than ever, and many of those offers may come with a balance transfer offer. Although most of these balance transfer offers are quite advantageous, there may be a few things to consider before accepting a credit card offer with one of these balance transfer offers. In particular, pay close attention to balance transfer fees, as they can be tricky and often difficult to understand. Here’s what you need to watch for:

• High balance transfer rates – Balance transfer rates can vary widely from one card to the next, and some creditors charge as much as three to five percent in the form of balance transfer fees. The amount you will pay will depend on the amount you are transferring, as the balance transfer fee is a percentage of the transferred balance. It is important to remember that, most of the time, these fees are not negotiable. Sometimes individuals with excellent credit that threaten to use another card to transfer balances may have luck when it comes to negotiating the balance transfer fee rate.
• Keep in mind that there are generally no limits on balance transfer fees, so if your balances are high, expect your balance transfer fee to be high, too, which may cancel out any advantage you may get from transferring your balances to another credit card with a lower interest rate. It may be in your best interest to do the math and determine if the balance transfer fee or the higher interest rate on the other card makes more financial sense.
• Don’t expect balance transfer rates to hang around very long. In fact, many creditors have cut these introductory periods quite dramatically, from 12 months just a year ago to little more than six to nine months these days. Pay close attention to the card’s default rate once the promotional period has ended, as it could be just as high – or higher – than the interest rates on your current credit cards, thereby leaving you in a worse position than when you started.

Many banks and credit card companies send out pre-screened credit card offers to people based on several factors, such as their income, their credit history and other personal information.

An Ideal Applicant

In other words, a pre-screened credit card offer is one that was well thought out by the bank. Instead of credit card offers that are sent out to the masses, pre-screened credit card offers mean that the creditor has done a background check and found you to be an ideal applicant for the card.

The creditor may use your borrowing history, your credit score and other personal information to qualify you for a pre-screened credit card offer. Creditors may also offer pre-screened cards to a particular group of individuals, such as homeowners or those who belong to an organization. If you get a pre-screened offer in the mail, you can be assured that the creditor has done substantial checking on you to determine that you are the ideal applicant for its credit card.

Your Credit Worthiness

A pre-screened credit card usually means that you will almost always get approved for the credit card, versus an invitation-style credit card offer, which may or may not mean you will be approved without first determining your credit worthiness.

Often times, credit card companies are able to target a particular group of individuals by paying the major credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) to provide them with a list of individuals who meet its criteria. These inquiries by credit card companies are often referred to as “soft inquiries,” meaning that they don’t have a negative effect on your credit rating.

You may receive a pre-screened credit card offer in the mail with the words “pre-approved,” “pre-qualified” or “pre-selected, although they all generally mean the same thing.

Although creditors in the past focused on several different types of people, even sub-prime borrowers, today’s customer that receives a pre-screened credit card offer will likely be an individual with a strong credit history and an excellent credit score.

These unique circumstances may provide you with the opportunity to snag that really great credit card for which you’ve been looking. However, with multiple credit card offers being delivered into your mailbox every week, how do you begin examining and comparing the offers?

Although each credit card offer will come with its own benefits and advantages, there are five things that you should take a moment and review when comparing credit card offers:

1. Review the APR – The APR on the credit card will likely allow you to eliminate certain cards right off the bat. So, it only makes sense to take a look at the card’s APR immediately upon opening the credit card offer.
2. Review the terms of the APR – A credit card’s APR is only as good as the terms and conditions that are attached to it. Don’t be fooled by a low, promotional APR; instead, find a card with a great low, fixed interest rate so you won’t have to play the game of transferring to another credit card the moment the card’s promotional APR expires.
3. Review the balance transfer options – If you have outstanding debt on other credit cards, you may consider transferring those balances to your new credit card. Luckily, many credit card offers come with balance transfer options; just be sure to check the terms and conditions, including the APR, associated with the balance transfer offer, as they will usually differ from the card’s general terms and conditions.
4. Review the card’s rewards – If rewards are what you’re after, then examining the rewards is likely high on your priority list. Don’t skim through this material, though, as credit card rewards often come with their share of terms and conditions. Instead, take the time to read this information carefully.
5. Review all other terms and conditions – It can’t be said enough: take the time to read the small print! Your job as an informed consumer should be to make sure you completely understand all aspects of your credit card, and this happens when you read all of the card’s fine print.