<prompt> Human: I called Wells Fargo today. I have 4,000 on a platinum credit card. They charge me 25.49 APR. I have a 707 credit score and asked them to lower my rate. They basically laughed at me. I threatened to transfer the balance to another card and they blew it off.My wife and I are school teachers. I make about 42000 shes 35,000 annual and I have about 14000 on 23 APR cards. Ive called each and they dont care. I have been working to drag ourselves out of debt. I have already paid off four other credit cards and have been snowballing. But money is tight and that leads to temptation to use credit. I am now looking at debt consolidation loans and balance transfers. Im worried that I wont be approved for high enough balances to make the transfers or loans worth the hit on my score when I apply. How can I shop around without ruining my credit? How do I make good on my threat to leave Wells Fargo?Edit: I should have mentioned. I have other debt. A personal loan and other accounts with interest 16 and below. I am working to pay off my debt. My total consumer debt payments are about 60 of my monthly income. Which is way too much.  <response>: interest rate is not your problem. youre currently paying about 85month in interest, maybe 100. 4000 at 25 is 1000year, divided by 12 is 83.33. round up for compounding and youre paying maybe 100 or so a month in interest. your household income is 77,000. take home of about 4800. the interest payments are thus only about 2 of your monthly income. interest rate is not the problem. people get focused on the interest rate and think its critical and will solve everything. but this usually isnt the case. interest rate is an easy, simple number to understand, so a lot of emotional energy gets directed at the interest rate. odds are you simply need a tighter budget, a little more discipline, and maybe a weekend job. if each of you earns just 500month with a second job, you can pay this off in 4 months and be done with it. 