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Variable credit card
rates hit a new high
Bankrate.com
The cost of using plastic has gone up.
 Thanks
to the Federal Reserve Board's interest rate increases, the average
charge on variable-rate credit cards has risen to 17.08 percent,
according to Bankrate.com's weekly survey. That's the highest in
the four years that Bankrate.com has tracked this rate.
Variable-rate cards -- the most common type
in the United States -- tend to rise in step with the prime rate.
A year ago, the prime stood at 7.75 percent and variable rate cards
averaged 15.77 percent.
Since then, the Federal Reserve Board has issued
a series of interest rate increases to try and cool off the red-hot
economy. Now, the prime is at 9.5 percent.
The increase, however, is unlikely to cause
anyone to cut up his or her cards. Take someone with a $3,000 balance
on a variable rate card who wants to pay off the card in 12 months.
A year ago, at 15.77 percent, it would have taken monthly payments
of $271.87. Now, it will cost $273.73 a month -- an increase of
less than $2.
Use this
calculator to figure your own credit card payments.
Bankrate.com gathers its data from a weekly survey of 4,000 institutions
in hundreds of markets.
-- Posted: June 15, 2000
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