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| Wall Street Journal Prime Rate |
| By Bankrate.com |
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| Prime rate, fed funds, COFI |
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This week |
Month ago |
Year ago |
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WSJ Prime Rate
|
5.00 |
5.25 |
8.25 |
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What it means: The initials stand for the Wall Street Journal, which surveys large
banks and publishes the consensus prime rate. The Journal surveys
the 30 largest banks, and when three-quarters of them (23) change,
the Journal changes its rate, effective on the day the Journal publishes
the new rate. It's the most widely quoted measure of the prime rate,
which is the rate at which banks will lend money to their most-favored
customers. The prime rate will move up or down in lock step with changes
by the Federal Reserve Board.
How it's used: The prime rate is an important index used by banks to set rates on
many consumer loan products, such as credit cards or auto loans. If
you see that the prime rate has gone up, your variable credit card
rate will soon follow.
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