Credit Card , Interest Rates , Reach All-Time High .<br />NBC reports that the cost of credit card debt <br />is now the highest it's been in over 30 years, <br />with average interest rates up to 19.04%.<br />Bankrate has been surveying credit card <br />rates since 1985, and this eclipses <br />the previous all-time high<br />of 19.00% from July 1991, Greg McBride, Bankrate chief financial analyst, via NBC.<br />The new all-time high comes as the Federal Reserve <br />has made its largest key federal funds rate hike <br />in over a decade in an effort to combat inflation.<br />NBC reports that the Fed's plan is to raise <br />the cost of borrowing in hopes that it will <br />slow the economy and ease rising prices.<br />This has ratcheted the prime rate <br />up to 7%, which is what banks charge <br />the most creditworthy customers.<br />The prime rate is also used <br />to determine the final annual <br />percentage rate for a credit card. .<br />According to Bankrate, someone paying the <br />minimum payment on a $5,000 credit card debt <br />would pay over $6,000 in interest over 15 years.<br />You don’t feel it on a monthly basis, <br />but minimum payments are a trap, Ted Rossman, Bankrate Senior Industry Analyst, via NBC.<br />You don’t feel it on a monthly basis, <br />but minimum payments are a trap, Ted Rossman, Bankrate Senior Industry Analyst, via NBC.<br />If you as an individual have credit card debt <br />with an interest rate near 20%, that needs to <br />be priority — it's three, four, five times <br />higher than other forms of debt, Ted Rossman, Bankrate Senior Industry Analyst, via NBC
