Average Credit Card Interest Rate 2026: 22.36% and What It Costs You

Short answer: the average credit card interest rate is 22.36% for accounts that pay interest, and 21.19% across all accounts. Those are the Federal Reserve's latest figures, released November 6, 2026, from its August survey of banks. If you carry a balance, 22.36% is the number that applies to you. On a $6,000 balance it costs about $3.68 a day, or about $112 a month.

Paying only a minimum of 2% of the balance would take about 108 years at that rate, and the interest would come to about $67,000. A fixed $300 a month clears the same $6,000 in 26 months for $1,577 of interest.

Who this is for: anyone in the US who carries a card balance from month to month, or is about to put holiday spending on a card. What it does not cover: business cards, rewards strategy, and what any single issuer charges. Your own APR is on your statement and can sit well above or below the average. If you pay your statement in full every month, your interest is zero and only the last two sections apply to you.

The rateThe average credit card interest rate in November 2026

The Federal Reserve's G.19 release publishes card rates once a quarter, from a survey of commercial banks. It gives two numbers, and they answer different questions:

• All accounts (21.19%) is the stated APR averaged across every card account at the reporting banks, including people who never pay interest because they clear the bill each month.
• Accounts assessed interest (22.36%) leaves out accounts with no finance charge that month. It is the closer measure of what people who carry a balance are actually charged, and it is the one this article uses.

APR means annual percentage rate, the yearly cost of borrowing. The gap between the two figures is 1.17 points. It exists because the cards people carry balances on tend to have higher rates than the cards people pay off.

Two cautions on the latest number. It is preliminary and may be revised in the next release. And it comes from the August survey, a month before the Fed's September rate hike, so it does not yet include the quarter point that most variable-rate cards added in September and October.

The mathHow an APR becomes daily interest

Most issuers don't charge interest once a month. They charge it every day, on the balance you hold that day, and add it up at the end of the billing cycle. The method has three steps:

At 22.36%, the daily rate is about 0.0613%. On a $6,000 balance that is $3.68 a day and $110.27 over a 30-day cycle. Held for a year without payments or new purchases, the same balance costs about $1,342 in simple interest. Because each day's interest is added to the balance and then charged interest itself, the effective yearly rate is 25.05%, not 22.36%.

Six dollars is small, but it shows how the system works: interest follows the balance day by day, so money that sits in checking until the due date costs you. If you get paid twice a month, sending part of each paycheck to the card as it arrives lowers the average.

The trapWhat minimum payments do to $6,000

Each issuer sets its own minimum-payment formula. Two common versions are a flat share of the balance, such as 2%, and 1% of the balance plus that month's interest. Both usually have a floor, here $25. At 22.36%, they give very different results:

The first row looks like a typo, but it is the math. The first month's interest on $6,000 is $111.80, so only $8.20 of a $120 minimum reduces the balance. As the balance shrinks, the 2% minimum shrinks with it and stays just above the interest. That is why many issuers add the month's interest to the minimum instead. The second row shows that this still takes about 21 years.

The third row shows the fix that needs no new money: keep paying the first minimum after it starts to fall. Holding $120 fixed cuts the time from 108 years to about 12. Raising it to $300 cuts it to just over two years and saves more than $65,000 against the first row.

Your statement already does this calculation for you. Federal rules (Regulation Z §1026.7(b)(12)) require a Minimum Payment Warning box showing how long minimum payments would take and what they would cost in total, and, in most cases, the monthly payment that clears the balance in three years. That 36-month figure is a reasonable target if you don't have one.

The driversWhat moves your APR: prime plus a margin

Almost every US card has a variable rate: the prime rate plus a margin. Prime is the rate banks publish as their base, and by convention it sits 3 points above the top of the Fed's target range. The margin is set by the issuer, depends largely on your credit score, and is written into your card agreement.

• The Fed's latest decision: on October 28, 2026 the Federal Open Market Committee held its target range at 3.75%–4.00%, on a 10–2 vote. That followed a quarter-point hike on September 16. The next meeting is December 8–9.
• Prime: 7.00% since September 17, 2026, up from 6.75% (Federal Reserve H.15).
• What the hike costs: a quarter point on $6,000 is about $1.25 a month. A full point would be $60 a year. What the Fed hike costs you works this through for other kinds of debt.

The margin is the larger part, and it has grown. The CFPB found (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) that the average APR margin over prime rose from 9.6% in 2013 to 14.3% in 2023, across all credit tiers. It estimated that the extra margin cost a consumer with an average $5,300 balance more than $250 in 2023.

The Fed's own numbers show the same pattern. Between the August 2025 and August 2026 surveys, prime fell 0.75 points, from 7.50% to 6.75%. The average card rate on accounts paying interest fell only 0.47 points, from 22.83% to 22.36%. The gap between the two widened from 15.33 to 15.61 points. Our comparison is rougher than the CFPB's, since it sets one average against another, but it points the same way: rate cuts reach card holders slowly, and hikes reach them within a billing cycle or two.

The seasonBlack Friday, November 27, and the January statement

Black Friday is November 27 this year. The National Retail Federation forecasts November–December sales of about $1.013 trillion, up 4.2% from 2025. It goes into the season on top of $1.26 trillion of existing card balances, the New York Fed's figure for the second quarter, up $21 billion in that quarter. The third-quarter figure is due November 10.

Here is what $1,000 of gifts costs at 22.36%, depending on how it is paid:

• Paid in full by the statement due date: $0, provided you had no balance carried over. The grace period does the work.
• Paid off at $100 a month: about $117 in interest over 12 months.
• Left on the 2% minimum: about $852 of interest over about 6.3 years. That is the gifts bought nearly twice over.

If the money isn't there in January, decide on the payoff date at the register, not when the statement arrives. Our holiday gift budget guide sets the limit before you shop, and buy now, pay later on Black Friday covers the checkout option many stores will push. A true 0% Pay-in-4 can beat a card that carries a balance, but late fees and monthly plans at up to 36% APR are another matter.

Ways outThree options on the same $6,000

Stopping new purchases on the card comes first. Then there are three ways to pay less interest on the balance. Each runs below on $6,000 at the same $300 a month, so the totals compare like with like.

• Balance transfer. You move the balance to a new card with a 0% introductory rate. The CFPB's December 2025 card market report put the average transfer fee at 4.3%, which is $258 here. At $300 a month you still owe $858 when an 18-month promo ends, and that remainder costs about $32 more at 22.36%. The trade-offs: you need a good score and a high enough limit, the fee is due up front, and new purchases on that card can cost interest. To clear it inside the window you would need about $348 a month.
• Debt avalanche. With several cards, put every extra dollar on the highest APR and pay minimums on the rest. On $4,000 at 29.99% plus $2,000 at 21.99%, $300 a month costs $1,962 of interest over 27 months highest-rate-first, against $2,283 over 28 months paying the smaller balance first. The avalanche costs nothing to start and needs no approval. Its weakness is that the first card can take a long time to disappear. Snowball vs. avalanche compares the two in detail.
• Personal loan. A fixed-rate loan pays off the card and gives you a fixed end date. The Fed's average for a 24-month bank loan is 11.90%. At $300 a month that is $721 of interest over 23 months. The trade-offs: offers at fair credit can run far higher than the average, and an origination fee comes out of the money you receive. Our balance transfer vs. personal loan guide prices both at several scores and payments.

None of these helps if the card fills up again. Before you move the debt, check how much of your take-home pay goes to debt payments, and if you have savings, weigh paying off debt against investing. A transfer or loan also involves a hard credit check, and what moves your credit score explains why lower card utilization usually outweighs it.

Track itPut your own numbers in

The Credit Card Payoff Calculator takes your balance, your APR and a monthly payment and shows the payoff date and total interest, so you can try the fixed-payment fix from the table above on your own card. For more than one debt, the Debt Payoff Tracker holds every balance and rate, orders them by avalanche or snowball, and shows what you planned to pay against what you actually paid each month.

Where these numbers come from

• Card rates: Federal Reserve G.19, released November 6, 2026. Commercial-bank credit card plans, Q3 2026 preliminary (August survey): 22.36% accounts assessed interest, 21.19% all accounts; Q3 2025 22.83% and 21.39%; annual figures 2021–2025 as charted. 24-month personal loans 11.90%. These are bank averages and do not include credit unions or retail cards that are not part of the survey.
• Policy rates: FOMC statements of September 16 and October 28, 2026, and the FOMC calendar. Prime rate 7.00% from the H.15 release of November 6, 2026; the 7.50% (August 2025) and 6.75% (August 2026) values are from the same series on FRED (DPRIME).
• Margins: CFPB, "Credit card interest rate margins at all-time high", February 22, 2024. Our 15.33 and 15.61 point gaps are simple differences between the Fed's average APR and prime, not the CFPB's method.
• Transfer fee: CFPB, The Consumer Credit Card Market, December 2025: average 4.3% in the second half of 2024.
• Holiday and balances: NRF forecast of October 15, 2026; New York Fed Household Debt and Credit report for Q2 2026, released August 11, 2026.
• Our model is in drafts/average-credit-card-interest-rate-2026-numbers.mjs, with every figure asserted. The daily-interest example uses APR ÷ 365. The payoff tables use monthly interest at APR ÷ 12 with a payment at the end of each month, no new purchases, no fees and a constant rate. Real cards compound daily, so actual costs run slightly higher than shown. The two minimum-payment formulas are illustrations; your issuer's formula is in your card agreement.

FAQFrequently asked questions

What is the average credit card interest rate right now?
22.36% for accounts that pay interest and 21.19% across all accounts, according to the Federal Reserve's G.19 release of November 6, 2026. The figures come from the August survey of commercial banks, before the Fed's September hike.

Which average should I compare my card with?
The 22.36% figure, if you carry a balance. It averages only accounts that were charged interest. The 21.19% figure includes cards whose owners pay in full every month.

How is credit card interest calculated each month?
Most issuers divide the APR by 365 to get a daily rate, multiply it by your average daily balance, and multiply that by the days in the billing cycle. At 22.36%, a $6,000 average balance costs about $110 over 30 days.

Did the Fed's September 2026 rate hike raise my card's APR?
If your card has a variable rate, almost certainly, by a quarter point, within one or two statements. Prime rose from 6.75% to 7.00% on September 17. On $6,000 that adds about $1.25 a month. The Fed held rates on October 28 and meets again December 8–9.

How long does it take to pay off $6,000 with minimum payments?
It depends on your issuer's formula. At 22.36%, a 2% minimum would take about 108 years and $67,146 of interest; 1% plus interest takes about 21 years and $10,105. A fixed $300 a month takes 26 months and $1,577.

Is a credit card APR of 25% high?
It is above the 22.36% average for accounts paying interest, but not unusual for fair credit, store cards or new accounts. What counts more is your balance: at 25%, even $1,000 carried all year costs about $250.

Can I get my credit card interest rate lowered?
Often, yes. Ask the issuer, especially after a year of on-time payments or with a competing balance-transfer offer. If it says no, a 0% transfer or a fixed-rate personal loan can lower the rate you pay on the balance itself.

The takeawayThe average matters less than your payment

At 22.36%, a card balance costs about 6 cents a day for every $100. The Fed's moves change that by fractions of a cent. The payment you choose changes it by tens of thousands of dollars. Find your APR on your statement, pick a fixed monthly amount you can keep up, and put it in the Credit Card Payoff Calculator before the holiday statements arrive.