NEW YORK—Credit unions may have a present and future opportunity to help members refinance card debt, as a new report reveals the Fed’s big interest rate hikes are pushing average credit card interest rates to new records.
The average credit card APR skyrocketed to 19.04% as of November 9, according to Bankrate.com.
That’s the highest rate since Bankrate.com’s database began in 1985, beating the prior record of 19% set in July 1991, CNN reported.
“The milestone is the latest demonstration of how the Fed’s historic inflation-fighting campaign is pushing up borrowing costs on Main Street. Mortgage rates more than doubled over the past year to 20-year highs, forcing countless potential buyers to drop out of the housing market,” CNN noted.
The national average APR for credit cards has climbed by 2.74 percentage points so far this year, the biggest increase in a single year on record, according to Bankrate.com.