Credit card rates in the US can be very high. I’ve seen interest rates as high as 38% before and I’m not sure that is the upper limit. What is funny is that most states have usury laws that make it illegal to loan money at more than a certain rate. Many times these rates are low–10% to 15%. However the way the laws are written these rates don’t apply to banks or credit cards.
It seems kind of pointless to make a law and then exempt the very people who are likely to fall under it.
While US credit card rates are high, other countries have even worse rates. I know of someone in central America who has a rate of 43%! I think there are other people with rates even higher than that.
If you use a credit card make sure you know your terms and be very careful not to carry a balance or get into a place where you can’t pay off everything each month.
Credit cards are a very bad way to consolidate debt unless you know you can pay them off once the rate goes up.
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