That is because she does not pay it up each month. Maybe she is spending more that she should. Does she have children who need to look into her finances? That rate is about normal for most cards. Interest rates on all cards are very high now. Instead of negotiating rates, she and her family need to find out what I talked about. It would be to your benefit to suggest this to her/family, and stay out of it.

It is because almost all cards are raising rates to overcomce the loss of defaults and to hedge against a predicted aceleration of defaults.
I don't carry balances, but the rate for the card that gets points is much higher than my "great rate" card, which is single digit - sorry, I can't remember the rates because I don't pay interest.
I don't see any harm at all in her calling her bank to get a better rate.

I never paid attention to the interest rate because I paid the card off every month. When car repairs and medical bills the past couple of years ran up the balance, I realized I was paying 20.99%. I just got notice a couple of weeks ago they were raising my rate to 28.99%. I can't even afford the 20.99. I just canceled the card.

I don't know what the rates on my cards are because I pay off the balance every month.

I pay the balance off too, but I just looked and it says 6% variable. Its our only CC and we each (DH & I) have a card with our own name on it.

If she can't afford to pay off the card in full every month, she could look for an offer from a new CC for a lower rate and transfer the balance to that CC. Best to pay it off. Next-best to start paying it down until she can get to a zero balance.

Although... as I understand it, if there's no estate left when a person dies the balance is uncollectable. (Everyone paying interest picks up the slack on those accounts!)

0 pay it off each month

0% on one card. When the card defaults this fall to a higher rate it will be gone.

She should check out other rates on-line and see if she can transfer the balance to a lower rate, maybe even a 0%. That's what I did when Citi bank tried to screw me.

think it's 8-9%, on the one left we use, but not sure as it's paid...

Mine is 19% too and we pay it off every month - actually I pay it off as soon as hubby charges anything. I just don't like posting my checking account info online - except to pay off the credit card.

One is 7.9, another is 9.9. They are both credit union cards.

My Amazon credit card has a 16 and change rate, but it gets paid off every time it is used, so no biggie.

She'd do better to have a credit debit card and just use the debit. Of course that means never going over the amount in her checking account.

Is she alert and astute regarding financial affairs, generally? Has she made some unwise use of her card ... or been conned by some shysters?

Most regular credit cards have charged 15 - 19% in earlier times.

Store-issued cards regularly have charged 25 - 29% up till recent times.

Which is a business deal - no one twists anyone's arm to force them to participate.

Many people pay the balance owing in full every month prior to the due date, then they pay 0%. Does she?

Does she have a substantial balance owing, that she doesn't pay in full every month? That's when those interest rates apply.

Maybe she can find a card offer that charges 0% ... or up to 3% or so, on debt that's transferred in ... for usually 6 - 9 months, then rising to the regular rate. But if she were to sign up for one and transfer ... don't buy anything using that card, for usually no payment will be credited to that new debt until the total amount of the amount transferred is paid off ... but it will have been accruing interest throughout that period, at the usual rate which that card charges.

Often a card issued by a credit union charges a lower rate.

Would her financial institution make her a loan, to pay off the balance owed on the card? Usually their interest rate would be a lot lower, even on an unsecured loan.

If she were to give some stock or mutual fund certificates to the bank as collateral, the interest rate would be lower ... and it would likely be lower if she were to use her home as security ... but there might be costs associated with searching the title, having the property appraised, etc.

How about you lending her the money ... if at 8%, that's less than half of her current rate, but triple what your money earns in the bank ... if at 6%, double what you earn now, and a third what she's paying.

Thanks for helping her cope with this issue.

ole joyful

P.S. I'm somewhat frustrated ... I thought that I'd sent this post several hours ago ... but can't find it here.

o j

Zero, zip, and zilch. We pay that off every month. I'm not about to pay interest to a company. We'd do w/o before we'd run up a bill we couldn't pay off. We put everything on credit card--one card, then pay it off.

18% and I always have a balance.

The two cards I use pay me cash back. So I guess in a way there's a negative interest rate.

Is she trying to live off the credit card because of financial problems?

I pay mine off every month so I have no idea what the interest rate is on it.

3% so it is not too bad. We only have one that we carry. The others we pay every month.

Husband pays it off every month.

Mine is only 3.5%. It is only used for paying the Dentist. Then it gets paid right away when the insurance cheque arrives. We used to have a balances on a high interest cards but we switched to this card and were able to pay off the balances quite easily at the much lower interest rate. So now we never carry a balance over. I learned the hard way!