Credit Card Rates & Fees Continue Rise

[jeffrey]

A new survey released this past week by Consumer Action, an advocacy group based in San Francisco, shows that credit card interest rates and late fees continue to rise. According to the survey, the average variable interest rate for credit cards has risen to 12.96%, a .84% increase since last year.

Penalty rates (those that credit cards use if you miss a payment even if it is with another credit card) have also risen sharply to 24.23%. That is an increase 2.32% since last year.




While fixed rate cards have had smaller interest rate increases, more and more fixed rate cards are becoming variable rate cards. Discover and MBNA have both made such changes to their cards in the past year.