Half of survey respondents saw increase in credit card debt interest rates - Bills.com News

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Half of survey respondents saw increase in credit card debt interest rates

Thursday, Nov 19, 2009
By Lucy Sanderson

A new survey shows that many Americans have seen an increase in interest rates on their credit card debt.

According to the poll from Rasmussen Reports, 50 percent of respondents said they have seen an increase in their credit card debt interest rate in the last six months. Many credit card companies have been increasing rates in anticipation of new rules from the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act (Credit CARD Act of 2009).

As a resultof the act, credit card companies are going to be limited in their ability to raise interest rates and would have to review any rate increases after a certain period of time. However, those rules do not take effect until February of next year, though Congress is debating whether to speed up the date of the new regulations.

Not everyone in the survey saw an increase in their credit card debt interest rates. Of those asked, 31 percent said they had not seen an increase in their
interest rate, while another 19 percent said they weren't sure if their rate had gone up.

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