Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
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(NBC News) -- How would you like to never ever have to pay late fees or bank fees or interest?
Tracy Davidson introduces you to the man who can show you how.
Scott Bilker / Author: "You have to punish your credit cards if they don't do what you want?"
Scott Bilker is known as the credit card king.
This New Jersey man has written the book on how to talk your way out of everything from high interest rates to late fees, hidden fees and all those annoying charges.
So we put Bilker to the test
"I was hoping you could waive this membership fee for me."
He wanted to see if he could get fees waived, and interest rates lowered.
Jen Johnson gave Bilker the ok to start punishing her credit card companies.
"I'm just hoping, as a courtesy, I mean I have some other credit cards, I'm just seeing which credit cards I should use."
"I'll continue to do this and I appreciate you waiving this late fee."
A 25 buck late fee waived, Bilker's personal best, this appeared on her statement back in july of 2004. Now he wanted to tackle orchard bank and get a 23.9 percent interest rate dropped, and if that wasn't enough, he wanted to go for the gold and get a 29 dollar late fee waived.
"Ok, 19 to 20 percent. Ok, that's cool."
"Bottom line, call rates lowered and they waived this old late charge from Sept. 2004."
Jen's Capitol One Visa card has a 38 dollar membership fee. Scott got rid of that as well.
"I said, can you waive the annual fee, she's like yes, I can go ahead and do that for you."
Scott has four tips to help you talk your way out of fees and high Interest rates.
- Number 1, call immediately if you notice a problem with your bill.
"Can I speak to your supervisor about that?"
- Number 2, keep calm with sales reps. He's had tremendous success with humor and civility.
"I appreciate that Kathleen."
- Number three, have your statements ready with numbers and figures when they pull up your account. And some older statements too so you can talk about your account. And have your deal breakers ready.
"A deal breaker is what you do if they don't give you what you want."
Example: I am transferring accounts. I am closing out the account. I Have better offers through this credit card.
You also need to know what not to say when you pick up the phone. Don't blame the representative.
"You're charging me a higher rate, you're charging me an annual fee."
- Number two: don't close your account right away.
"Before giving them a chance to resolve the issue."
- Number three: don't ignore the problem if you have late fees.
"Call the bank and have them take care of you because you're a customer and you deserve to be treated right."
Bottom line: keep your credit clean. don't be late on any payments. Pay on time! That will help you avoid those high interest rates and added fees.
You can get more info from Scott's website, Debtsmart.com.
