Credit card interest rates have in some cases, jumped huge amounts.
quote:
Faced with mounting account delinquencies, major U.S. banks are penalizing credit-card customers late on payments by hiking their accounts to maximum default interest rates of 30% and more — even those with good credit records.
Default rates imposed for late payments, exceeding credit limits and bounced payment checks typically are levied on cardholders with poor credit scores, often incrementally. But state banking regulators and watchdog groups report a growing number of complaints of maximum default rates being imposed on erring customers with above-average credit scores of 700 and higher.
Market Watch
That means less money to spend on goods and services. So, while they try to save their own bottom line, they add to the problems the government has in getting people spending more.