Average credit card interest rates: March 2022

According to the CreditCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report, interest rates on new credit card offers were unchanged this week, registering at 16.17 percent for the fourth week in a row. Cardholders with balances, on the other hand, are running out of time to pay off their debt before interest rates climb.

According to the CreditCards.com Weekly Credit Card Rate Report, the average APR for new cards stayed stable on Wednesday, staying near 16 percent for the 102nd week.

Credit card companies have been extremely cautious about pricing new offers for nearly two years, opting to keep APRs on the bulk of new cards unchanged during the pandemic. However, today's abnormally low rates are unlikely to remain long, given that Federal Reserve members have stated that raising benchmark interest rates later this month is all but certain.

APRs on most new card offers are likely to climb as benchmark interest rates rise. When setting APRs for unopened cards, lenders aren't compelled to reflect government interest rate increases. However, most people have done so in the past. As a result, consumers looking for a new credit card will likely see APRs they haven't seen in years.

After the Federal Reserve dropped benchmark interest rates by a point-and-a-half in March 2020, prices on a range of loans, including credit cards, fell by the same amount, most new credit card offers are still promoting the same rates they offered nearly two years ago.

APRs on most new credit card offers plummeted sharply shortly after the Federal Reserve cut rates, prompting the national average credit card APR to drop to its lowest point since 2017. Since then, average rates on the bulk of new card offers have stayed remarkably low, especially for consumers with outstanding or excellent credit.

Most new credit cards, for example, have minimum APRs considerably below 16 percent among the 100 cards tracked weekly by CreditCards.com. Prior to the epidemic, it was far more difficult to obtain cards with introductory APRs of less than 16 percent, especially on rewards cards.

For example, in March 2019, the average new card APR for all cards tracked by CreditCards.com was 17.64 percent. Meanwhile, the average rewards card APR was 17.51 percent at the time. Most new card APRs were similar in February 2020, with the national average credit card APR ending the month at 17.35 percent and the average rewards card APR completing the month at 17.17 percent.

The average rewards card today, on the other hand, has a minimum APR of 15.99 percent. However, now that Federal Reserve policymakers have made it plain that the era of rock-bottom interest rates is coming to an end, such low rates aren't going to stay much longer.