Here's a look at the state of interest rates on five common consumer banking products and the latest rates from Bankrate.com's weekly national survey of large banks and thrifts conducted Jan. 14, 2009.
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Credit cards
Rates: 13.42 percent (standard fixed); 11.02 percent (standard variable)
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Fixed rates hovered near 12 percent all last year and so far haven't budged from 12.06 percent. The fixed APR on standard cards didn't move from 13.42 percent in 2008 and has shown no movement so far in 2009.
Variable rates fell 2 basis points this week to 10.84 percent and overall have sunk by 2.42 percentage points since last January. On standard cards, the rate dropped 4 basis points to 11.02 percent, 2.87 percentage points lower than 13.89 percent at the start of 2008. A basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
Consumer credit fell this month. On revolving accounts, the debt owed in November dropped $2.8 billion, or 3.4 percent annualized, to $973.5 billion, according to Federal Reserve data. It's a start, but consumers have piled on nearly $34 billion more in credit card debt since November 2007.
-- Leslie McFadden
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July 30 - Aug. 5
