Ask just about anybody if they know what their credit card's annual percentage rate is and you will get just about the same answer.It's not just good people on the streets being accosted by a reporter who are not wise to their APRs. Not knowing your credit card interest rate is a bit of a norm. According to a new survey from, 43% of people who carry credit card debt "say they don't know the attached interest rates.
"It does bug me that so many people don't know their rate," said Bankrate's senior industry analyst, Ted Rossman, who said trying to get out of debt without knowing your rate makes it really tough to come up with a good strategy to pay it off. "If you have debt, I mean, no shame — a lot of people do. But you have to make that interest rate a priority."For example, a credit card with an interest rate hovering near 30% will make you pay more to borrow money than a credit card at 20% APR. So rather than making equal payments to both cards, paying off the 30% APR card makes more financial sense.
"There's a saying that credit cards are like power tools, they could be really useful or they could be dangerous," Rossman said. You have seen the ads: Credit card companies love to entice potential borrowers with their perks — airline miles, rewards points, cashback and what have you. So it may not surprise you to know the Bankrate study found that people who did not know their interest rates did know about their perks.
I thought this was the best economy ever. Shouldn’t we have less debt? Eggs are so cheap, gas and meat too. Don’t know how anyone would have debt in this booming economy ….SMH… you can spin it all you want, we are in a recession. People are struggling. Send $100B to Ukraine