Fearless Books review of "Talk Your Way Out of Credit Card Debt"
by D. Patrick Miller |
Despite
the exhortations of finance counselors everywhere,
substantial credit card debt is a fact of life for millions
of people. And for some micro-businesses, it is the most
viable form of continuous financing. There is lots of advice
out there about consolidating your debts, avoiding frivolous
expenditures and so on, but a dearth of seasoned expertise
on direct guerrilla tactics—that is, how to call up
banks and card issuers and get them to back down your
interest rates and back off from their most aggressive
penalties and greedy policies.
In this informative and often entertaining manual, Scott
Bilker tells credit card holders how to really take charge
of their debt situation by showing exactly how he does it
for himself and his friends. Each chapter briefly introduces
a topic like “Lowering Your Interest Rate” or “Disputes,
Chargebacks, and Errors” before providing transcripts of
actual phone calls that Bilker made to various bank officers
to strike dollar-saving blows for the common man.
Besides
disguising the names of the guilty (banks are renamed after
dog breeds, and bank officers after insects), Bilker
presents an audio-verité guide to saving money and
regaining a real sense of control of your finances.
For
anyone who thinks such calls would probably be a waste of
time, Bilker calculates exactly how much he saved per hour
in his efforts (assuming minimum payback schedules), and his
results range as high as $74,000 (almost the hourly pay of
major bank CEOs!). With a note-taking guide and calculation
tables provided in the back of the book, you can accurately
gauge the success of your own guerrilla negotiations.
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