Yielding Wealth | Personal Finance

Watch Out! Those Credit Card Interest Rates are About to Change

by miranda on August 28th, 2007

The credit market crunch isn’t just about home mortgage loans. It’s about issues across the market. And, quite honestly, credit has been a little too easy to come by lately. Mortgage lenders are hardly the only culprits in this carnival of fallout resulting from shoddy lending practices. Credit cards are right up there as well. And here’s what the companies plan to do about it.

Credit card interest rates to change

Take a look at the notices coming in the mail regarding your credit cards. You will probably notice that interest rate changes are about to descend upon you. Your fixed rate may be changing to a variable rate. Your variable rate is probably going up. And those sweet intro deals? Well, they are shifting from 0% interest to something between 2.9% and 7.9%.

Tougher credit card lending standards

Credit card companies are also preparing to tighten standards. I know, I know. Any tightening at all is an improvement. Were there even standards before? But now, few card companies are looking for new customers through direct mail. (There will probably be plenty on college campuses, though.) And it will be more difficult to increase your credit line.

These are probably good developments. For those of us who don’t carry balances, the interest rate changes shouldn’t have an effect. But for everyone else with credit cards, this could be almost devastating.

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POSTED IN: Credit, Mortgage and Loans, Personal Finance