Credit Cards
Rates: 13.46 percent (standard fixed); 11.16 percent (standard variable)Across all standard, gold and platinum credit cards, average interest rates crept up this week. The mean fixed rate for purchases climbed 10 basis points to 12.38 percent and the average variable rate inched up 1 basis point to 11.2 percent.
The average standard fixed rate held at 13.46 percent from last week, and the standard variable rate remained at 11.16 percent.
The decline in mailed credit card offers may be slowing down. American households received 349.1 million offers in the second quarter of 2009, down only 6 percent from the 372.4 million solicitations sent out in the first quarter, according to Mail Monitor, a credit card mail tracking service for global market research firm Synovate. Some of the top 25 card mailers pumped more offers out in the second quarter. Bank of America and Citibank led this pack.
All mailed offers during the second quarter were for variable-rate credit cards. A year ago, only 60 percent of mailed card offers were tied to variable-APR products.
You can find your best credit card deal -- by type -- at Bankrate's interactive tool.
-- Leslie McFadden