How can I lower my (wifes) credit card interest rate?

There is no downside to calling the credit card company and asking them to do just that: lower your rate. Whether they will or not will be determined by how much of a risk they think you are. All creditors are "risk based" and they base decisions like this on whether they are better off working with you or holding the line.

If you have an 18% rate and asked them to reduce it, they may do that because right now their costs of finds is very, very low. But you have to "plead your case". Don't regale them with the wife's story, just say things are tight and unless they work with you you may not be able to pay.

I'm not sure what kind of advice to offer on the wife's abuse of credit. In 28 years in this business I've heard it way too many times. If she is just plain abusive about credit and cannot control herself you need to seek credit counseling. If she is doing it for other reasons, then another type counselor may be due.

If she just opened them, how can you not afford to pay them off? Did she do a balance transfer, or did she run them up before you found out?

First, try calling them and asking them to lower the rate. Tell each of them you want to make them the main card in your wallet, but the interest rate is too high. This probably won't work, but it can't hurt to try.

Second, if you have a card with a decent rate, see if you can do a balance transfer onto that card. If you call the company and tell them you want to do a large and/or multiple transfers, they might give you a good rate on the transfer.

Third, open a new account with a low rate and/or low balance transfer rate and transfer the balance(s) to that card.

If none of those are workable options, you might have to threaten to default on the debt. If it comes to no money or some money, they'll do a deal. This is the last option, however, because a charge off will damage your credit score and will stay on your credit report for 7 years. I would seriously recommend a second job before doing this.

Also, if you succeed in paying down or moving the debt to a lower rate card, don't close these accounts. They're already open, she's already taken the credit score hit--keeping them open with a low balance will actually help her credit (and yours if you are an authorized user) by keeping the percentage of debt to credit at a lower level than if you closed the accounts.

When you are able to calm down, you might try to help her understand why this was a really bad idea.

Get a different low interest rate card and transfer the higher interest balances to new lower rate cards. Try Capital One. Maybe your wife could get a part-time job to pay them down/off. I'm assuming she doesn't work if you are paying her cc bill. If she pays her own bills, then it's really not your concern....

You probably won;t be able to get them to lower the rates. Just cancel the cards and pay as much as possible towards them each month.

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