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Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
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Report to the Congress on the Profitability of Credit
Card Operations of Depository Institutions

Recent Trends in Credit Card Pricing

Aside from questions about the profitability of credit card operations, credit card pricing and how it has changed in recent years has been a focus of public attention and is consequently reviewed in this Report.  Analysis of the trends in credit card pricing here focuses on credit card interest rates because they are the most important component of the pricing of credit card services.  Credit card pricing, however, involves other elements, including annual fees, fees for cash advances and balance transfers, rebates, minimum finance charges, over‑the‑limit fees, and late payment charges.16 In addition, the length of the "interest‑free" grace period, if any, can have an important influence on the amount of interest consumers pay when they use credit cards to generate revolving credit.

Over time, pricing practices in the credit card market have changed.  Today card issuers offer a broad range of plans with differing rates depending on credit risk and consumer usage patterns.  Risk-based pricing has become a central element of most credit card plan pricing regimes and the economic downturn and new credit card rules spurred changes in pricing in 2009 and 2010.  In most plans, an issuer establishes a rate of interest for customers of a given risk profile; if the consumer borrows and pays within the terms of the plan, that rate applies.  If the borrower fails to meet the plan requirements, for example, the borrower pays late or goes over their credit limit, the issuer may reprice the account reflecting the higher credit risk revealed by the new behavior.  Regulations that became effective in February 2010 limit the ability of card issuers to reprice outstanding balances for cardholders that have not fallen at least 60 days behind on the payments on their accounts.  Issuers may, however, reprice outstanding balances if they were extended under a variable-rate plan and the underlying index used to establish the rate of interest (such as the prime rate) changes.  The new rules continue to provide issuers with considerable pricing flexibility regarding new balances.

This report relies on credit card pricing information obtained from the Quarterly Report of Credit Card Interest Rates (FR 2835a).  This survey collects information from a sample of credit card issuers on (1) the average nominal interest rate and (2) the average computed interest rate.  The former is the simple average interest rate posted across all accounts; the latter is the average interest rate paid by those cardholders that incur finance charges.  These two measures can differ because some cardholders are convenience users who pay off their balances during the interest‑free grace period and therefore do not typically incur finance charges.  Together, these two interest rate series provide a measure of credit card pricing.  The data are made available to the public each quarter in the Federal Reserve Statistical Release G.19 Consumer Credit.

Because information from the FR 2835a survey does not have an extended historical interest rate series for comparison purposes, this report also presents data from the survey that preceded and was replaced by the FR 2835a, the Federal Reserve's Quarterly Report of Interest Rates on Selected Direct Consumer Installment Loans (FR 2835).  Data from the FR 2835a indicate that credit card interest rates fell sharply from mid‑1991 through early 1994 after being relatively stable for most of the previous twenty years, and fell again over the 1998-2003 period (Table 2).17 Since early 1998, credit card interest rates have fluctuated between 12.76 and 15.85 percent.

It is important to note that while average rates paid by consumers have moved in a relatively narrow band over the past several years, interest rates charged vary considerably across credit card plans and borrowers reflecting the various features of the plans and the risk profile of the card holders served.  Based on the Federal Reserve’s G. 19 Consumer Credit Report, for 2013, credit card interest rates averaged 12.94 percent for those incurring finance charges, down slightly from 12.96 percent in 2012.18 It is important to note that as the recession emerged, spreads between issuers’ cost of funds and prices charged on credit cards widened substantially, and have remained at elevated levels since then. 

Table 2. Average most common interest rate on credit card plans, 1974-August 1994, and the interest rate assessed on accounts incurring interest charges, November 1994-2013
Percent
Year Interest rate Year Quarter Interest rate
1974 17.2 2006 February 14.38
1975 17.16 May 14.77
1976 17.05 August 14.67
1977 16.88 November 15.09
1978 17.03
1979 17.03 2007 February 14.64
1980 17.31 May 14.47
1981 17.78 August 15.24
1982 18.51 November 14.35
1983 18.78
1984 18.77 2008 February 13.77
1985 18.69 May 13.51
1986 18.26 August 13.64
1987 17.92 November 13.36
1988 17.78
1989 18.02 2009 February 13.54
1990 18.17 May 14.43
1991 18.23 August 14.9
1992 17.78 November 14.37
1993 16.83
1994 15.77 2010 February 14.67
1995 15.79 May 14.48
1996 15.5 August 14.22
1997 15.57 November 13.67
1998 15.59
1999 14.81 2011 February 13.44
2000 14.91 May 13.06
2001 14.44 August 13.08
2002 13.09 November 12.78
2003 12.92
2004 13.21 2012 February 13.04
2005 14.54 May 12.76
2006 14.73 August 13.21
2007 14.68 November 12.81
2008 13.57
2009 14.31 2013 February 13.01
2010 14.26 May 12.76
2011 13.09 August 13.11
2012 12.96 November 12.89
2013 12.94    

Note: Prior to November 1994 interest rates were those reported in the Quarterly Report of Interest Rates on Selected Direct Installment Loans. Beginning in November 1994 interest rates are those reported on the Quarterly Report of Credit Card Interest Rates for those credit card holders incurring interest charges.

Source: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.

Footnotes

14. Refer to the Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, available at www.newyorkfed.org/index.html  Leaving the Board. Return to text

15. Source: Data from Mintel Comperemedia. Refer to www.comperemedia.com  Leaving the Board. Return to text

16. In June 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that states may not regulate the fees charged by out-of-state credit card issuers. States have not been permitted to regulate the interest rates out-of-state banks charge. In making its decision, the Court supported the position previously adopted by the Comptroller of the Currency that a wide variety of bank charges, such as late fees, membership fees, and over-the-limit fees, are to be considered interest payments for this purpose.  This ruling will likely ensure that banks will continue to price credit cards in multidimensional ways rather than pricing exclusively through interest rates.  Source: Valerie Block, Supreme Court Upholds Nationwide Card Charges, American Banker, June 4, 1996. 

An assessment of the fees charged by credit card issuers is provided in “Credit Cards: Increased complexity in Rates and Fees Heightens Need for More Effective Disclosures to Consumers,” U.S. Government Accountability Office, Report 06-929, September 12, 2006.  Refer to www.gao.gov Leaving the Board Return to text

17. For a comprehensive discussion of the factors that account for the levels and changes in credit card interest rates, see Glenn B. Canner and Charles A. Luckett, Developments in the Pricing of Credit Card Services; also U.S. General Accountability Office, U.S. Credit Card Industry (GAO/GGD-94-23, 1994). Return to text

18. It should be emphasized that the interest rates reported after August 1994 are based on the new survey and are not strictly comparable to the interest rates reported on the older survey. Return to text

 

Last update: June 13, 2014

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