WASHINGTON—Credit card interest rates have been rising steadily and the average recently surpassed 17% for only the second time ever, new Federal Reserve data show.
The average rate on all credit card accounts assessed interest was 17.13% in Q3 2021.
That’s up from 16.3% in Q2 and 15.91% at the beginning of the year, Fox Business said.
“The only other time credit card rates have been this high was in 2019, when interest rates spiked to 17.14%. Rapidly rising credit card rates—coupled with a 10.9% increase in revolving debt balances in the second quarter of this year, according to the Fed—can spell disaster for consumers who have trouble making consistent monthly payments on their credit balances,” Fox Business noted.