Throughout the vast majority of the credit card industry's existence, credit card interest rates have remained fairly fluid and changed from week to week. Over the past year, that notion has changed and in the United States, the second extended period of interest rate stagnation in just the past year has manifested.
Interest rates remained unchanged this week - just as they have for the past five weeks - at 14.91%. This trend is recent and was unheard of in the decades prior to last year, leaving many economic analysts puzzled as to what it means for the fate and future of the economy.
Just to explain how unusual this is, the interest rate average - in this case, taken from a sampling of 100 unique credit card offers - has not changed for any of them over the past five weeks. Many card issuers appear to not be adding incentives to their current batch of offers, as usually companies move their rates back and forth in an attempt to encourage individuals to join at specific times.
There is currently ample cheap credit available to those who meet the criteria, which has been raised in a broad sense over the past few years. Over one-third of all current credit card offers feature a 0% introductory APR while upwards of 70% of all cards come without an annual fee attached.
When looking at historic trends and the long-term, credit card interest rates currently are at their highest and do not appear to be decreasing any time soon. As a result of the depression, many new cards have appeared on the market that cater to those with bad credit. Unfortunately, these cards come with higher interest rates at a result of balancing out the risk.
The market currently appears to be polarized as a result of the sluggish economy, with those having high credit scores being able to take advantage of a wide array of low interest rate offers while those with bad credit are being charged more than ever.