December 1, 2008
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News: Credit Card Industry Favors Favorable
Perhaps the calm before the storm, perhaps not. The largest credit card issuing banks nicely keep lowering interest rates for those who maintain good ratings. Whether this will continue is still to be seen, as all the sweeping changes of doom may soon arrive as a tidal wave. Maybe the banks are giving more thought to sweeping decisions in order to surgically attend to problem areas without causing chaos where it doesn't need to be. Nice to think so anyway. So, the news this week is that credit card holders who maintain a good relationship with the banks and already have the best interest rates continue to get even better ones. Could be the calm before the storm but, right now, having a favorable credit card rating seem the place to be.
For example, those with strong credit histories and are fortunate to have credit cards with low interest that is below the national average, the mean purchasing APR has dropped from 11.44 percent last week down to 11.38 percent this week. For those who want to use their credit card accounts to turn credit into cash, the rates are generally the highest. Last the mean APR rates for those people was 13.61 percent. This week that mean APR has dropped down to 13.58 percent. In the area of balance transfers, the rates got a little better also. Last week the mean APR for balance transfers was 13.14 percent. This week it has edged down to an APR of 13.13 percent.
The overall average APR changes for variable rate cards, based on the most recent surveys performed by Bankrate, dropped from an APR of 11.27 percent down to a mean APR of only 11.10 percent. These surveys, regularly performed by Bankrate, comprise data from our nation's ten largest markets and our 10 largest credit card issuing banks. Then, they are averaged.