Average credit card interest rates have climbed past 20% again, and if you're carrying a balance, that number isn't abstract.
It's the reason your minimum payment barely dents what you owe.
The offers in your mailbox haven't changed, but the fine print has gotten a lot more expensive.
Here's the part the ads skip: a 0% intro APR is not free money.
When it runs out, the rate snaps to whatever the issuer decides, and for many cards that's now north of 20%, sometimes closer to 30% for store cards.
Miss one payment and some issuers can void the promo entirely, retroactively.
Card issuers earn billions in interest, and those profits scale directly with how long you stay in debt.
The rewards points, the cash back, the sign-up bonuses, they're funded in part by the interest paid by people who can't pay in full.
If you're one of them, you're subsidizing someone else's free flight.
The math is brutal in a way that's easy to ignore.
A $5,000 balance at 24% APR costs roughly $100 a month in interest alone.
Pay only the minimum and you could be paying for years, often shelling out thousands more than you borrowed.
There's a real trap hidden in "buy now, pay later" and store financing too.
Those plans often carry their own deferred-interest terms, where if you don't clear the balance in the window, you owe interest from day one.
Retailers push them because they boost sales.
The financing partner profits when you slip.
If you're stuck, the boring moves still work better than the clever ones.
A balance transfer to a genuine 0% card can help, but only if you can pay it off before the promo ends, and the 3% to 5% transfer fee is real money.
Calling your issuer and asking for a lower rate occasionally works, especially if you've been a customer in good standing.
It costs you a phone call and some patience.
The bigger point is that high APRs aren't a market accident.
They're a business model that depends on a chunk of customers staying behind.
Watch what gets marketed to you this month, and ask who's paying for the perk you're being offered.
My take: the credit card industry has gotten very good at making debt feel like a reward.
Final Thoughts
If an offer leads with points instead of APR, read the fine print twice.