The interest rates of credit cards have remained stable for the last four weeks without any fluctuations. However, this does not imply that the credit card issuers did not increase the interest rates over the last few months. The national average rates went up from 14.35% six months ago to 14.65% four weeks back and have remained steady ever since.
While the national average continues to remain steady, a few issuers such as Pentagon Federal Credit Union, American Express and Citi Group did bring about some changes to the balance transfer offers and introductory offers on their credit cards. The changes brought about continued the latest trend of offering extended introductory periods.
In introductory interest free balance transfer period for the Platinum Select MasterCard from Citi Group was extended to 21 months from the current 18 months. Once the introductory period of 21 months expires, the balance transfer APRs vary from 11.99% to 20.99%.
Going a step ahead, the Pentagon Federal Credit Union is offering an interest rate of 4.99% on all balance transfers processed between the 1st of April, 2011 and 30th June, 2011. This is applicable for the transfers on the Visa Platinum cashback card and Promise cards offered by the bank. Once the entire balance transferred during this period has been paid off, the APR for future balance transfer ranges between 7.49% and 13.99%.
Though American Express also made some changes to the balance transfer offers, the terms were relatively unclear.