Inflation pushing up credit card interests rates

Washington Examiner:

As credit card debt in the United States continues to swell amid unbridled inflation, average annual percentage rates for new credit cards are hitting record highs.

“Credit card interest rates are basically the highest they’ve ever been. I’ve been watching credit card rates on a monthly basis for more than a decade now. And it’s the highest that they’ve been since I’ve been tracking them," Matt Schulz, the chief credit analyst for LendingTree, told Yahoo Finance.

The average interest rate for credit cards was 20.17%, according to an analysis in June by LendingTree, an internet lending marketplace. June marked the first time the average rate eclipsed 20% since the survey began in 2018, according to the company. The survey reviewed over 200 popular credit cards.

The uptick in credit card interest rates coincides with high levels of credit card debt. Recent data from the Federal Reserve found that credit card balances in the U.S. reached $841 billion during the first quarter of 2022, according to CNBC. While lower than record-high levels of $930 billion set in 2019, the recent trend has been upward.

...

I quit using credit cards several years ago and it was one of the smartest moves I have made. Start paying them down and switch to a debit card to avoid their use.

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