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Pressure for Credit Card Rate Cuts
Pressure for credit card rate cuts
February 2009 has seen yet another
cut in official interest rates by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)
bringing official cash rates down to 3.25%. Despite this the average
credit card interest rate for purchases is still sitting up around
18%.
When the RBA started to slash
official rates in the second half of last year many of the banks were
sluggish to reduce rates on credit card products and instead focussed
on mortgage rates which were getting the lion's share of media
attention. Towards the end of the year many banks did finally start to
bring rates down slightly but following this latest cut by the RBA
there is hope that the banks may act by passing on these savings to
credit card holders as well as home owners with a mortgage.
Click4Credit is currently seeing
keen interest in low
interest credit cards, a competitive segment of the market which is
offering some credit card
offers with rates well below average and closer to ten percent
interest per year. Hopefully February and March will see a one percent
cut in rates on many credit cards and push a number of low rate cards
into single digit interest rates.
With the average credit card holder
having debts of around $3,000 an interest rate cut on credit cards
would be very welcome for those trying to manage their credit card
debts. It is also hoped that rate cuts will be made to debt
consolidation loans in the coming weeks to help those who are
particularly trying to reduce their debts.
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