Credit Card Interest To Cost More

[jeffrey]

Consumers will be paying slightly more each month to keep unpaid credit card balances after the Fed raised rates Tuesday, prompting a number of big banks to boost their prime rates.

The prime rates, which banks charge their best customers, rose after the Fed hiked its target for the federal funds rate, a key overnight bank lending rate, by a quarter-percentage point to 1.75 percent.

Banks announcing higher prime rates included Wells Fargo & Co., U.S. Bancorp and SunTrust Banks Inc. which all raised their primes to 4.75 percent from 4.50 percent.

The Fed move affects the federal funds rate on overnight loans between banks, which most lending institutions use as a benchmark for what rate they charge consumers for everything from credit cards to home loans... [read more at money.cnn.com