July 08, 2010
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News: Time To Shop Around
Despite efforts by national governments to curbed credit card companies from charging excessive fees and raising interest rates, studies indicate interest rates continue to rise. Currently interest rates are at an all time high in both the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK). In England, the average credit card interest rate is 16.69 percent which is the highest it's been since early 2002 despite the fact that the Bank of England base rate has been fixed at 0.5 percent over the past year. In the US, the current average credit card interest rate is 13.64 percent and rising. Six months ago, the average US card interest rate was 13.25 percent up from the 12.1 percent a year ago.
Lenders in the US continue to hike rates in spite of new credit card reform legislation that went into effect earlier this year. Some lenders have used other measures to increase interest like Citi Bank who raised its cash advance interest rate from 21.99 percent to 25.24 percent. Capital One raised its rates on two of its tops cards to 19.8 percent. In the UK market, the highest credit card interest rate is 19.9 percent charged by RBS Classic, Thomas Cook and Ryanair. Back in the US, lenders have implemented other fees in order to make up for the short fall. For example, Discover increased its cash advance fee by two percent and raised the minimum; several banks added annual fees; and, some raised balance transfer fees to 4 and 5 percent, from 3 percent.
It appears that not even government intervention has been truly successful in preventing credit card companies from afflicting more pain on consumers as they find loop holes in the law to increase earnings. So what's a consumer to do? Experts are encouraging consumers to shop around. Take advantage of online sites that allow you to search for the best deal free of charge, like http://www.extracreditcards.com/