For all credit cards, the average fixed rate is up by 6 basis points, to 12.6 percent, and the variable rate moved down 17 basis points to 11.1 percent. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.

The average fixed rate for standard cards hasn't budged from 13.42 percent for more than a year. Meanwhile, the average variable rate charged on standard cards slipped to 11.31 percent from 11.5 percent a week ago.

This month a small number of Chase cardholders will receive some bad news. About one-half of 1 percent of its cardholder base will see a $10 monthly service fee Chase applied to certain accounts and minimum payments will rise from 2 percent to 5 percent of the balance, starting in January 2009. The change will affect cardholders who carried a large balance for more than two years and didn't make much headway paying it down.

-- Leslie McFadden

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