The average credit card APR is 20.94% across all accounts, and 22.15% for accounts actually paying interest, per the Federal Reserve’s most recent G.19 consumer credit release (last checked August 26, 2026 — the numbers on this page update themselves weekly).
Why there are two “average APR” numbers
The Fed publishes both figures, and they answer different questions. All accounts (20.94%) averages the APR across every card the surveyed banks issue, including cards sitting in drawers. Accounts assessed interest (22.15%) averages only the cards that carried a balance and actually got charged; it therefore runs higher, and it’s the number that matters if you’re carrying debt. When a headline quotes “the average credit card interest rate,” check which of these it means; sites that quote one number without saying which are averaging away the difference.
What each credit tier is actually offered
The Fed’s averages describe existing accounts. What you’d be offered today depends on your credit tier — and the CFPB surveys hundreds of card plans twice a year with pricing by tier. We computed the medians from the CFPB’s latest raw survey data (663 cards, July–December 2025):
| Credit tier | Median purchase APR offered | Cards pricing this tier |
|---|---|---|
| Great credit | 20.11% | 390 |
| Good credit | 26.74% | 387 |
| Poor credit | 24.05% | 234 |
Two findings from the same data matter more than the medians. First: only 234 of 663 surveyed cards (about 35%) publish a price for poor credit at all. Most cards simply aren’t offered to you when your score is low, which is why the bad-credit market concentrates into the handful of cards we review. Second, the fair comparison is within the same card: among cards that price both tiers, poor credit is charged a median 4.5 percentage points more than great credit, and 88.8% of those cards charge poor-credit applicants more. (The poor-tier median looking lower than good’s in the table is a composition quirk, not a discount — the small set of cards that price a poor tier includes many rate-capped credit union cards, while high-APR mainstream cards skip the tier entirely.)
What the cards built for bad credit actually charge
The tier medians above include credit unions most people can’t join. The open-market cards for damaged credit, the ones we’ve verified from issuer disclosures, sit well above them:
| Card | Purchase APR |
|---|---|
| OpenSky Secured Visa | 23.89% variable |
| OpenSky Plus | 28.24% variable |
| Capital One Platinum Secured | 28.99% variable |
| Milestone / Indigo | 35.9% |
At those rates the strategy is fixed: these are credit-building tools to pay in full monthly, not financing tools. The card interest calculator shows what any balance costs at your exact APR, and the card payoff calculator turns an existing balance into a payoff date.
Methodology and sources
Fed averages: Federal Reserve G.19, Consumer Credit: commercial bank credit card rates; this page re-reads the current release weekly and displays the latest published figures. Tier data: computed by us from the CFPB’s raw Terms of Credit Card Plans survey file for July–December 2025 (663 cards; we excluded implausible entries outside 4%–40%, such as 0% intro placeholders and data-entry artifacts; medians of published tier pricing; paired spread computed only within cards pricing both tiers). Card-specific APRs: issuer disclosures, verified August 25, 2026, sourced in each review. Tier figures update when the CFPB publishes its next semiannual file.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average credit card interest rate right now?
Per the Federal Reserve’s most recent G.19 release: 20.94% across all accounts, and 22.15% for accounts that were actually charged interest. The figures on this page refresh automatically from the Fed’s data.
What APR can I get with bad credit?
Realistically 24%–36%. In CFPB survey data, cards that price a poor-credit tier show a 24.05% median offer, but most of the low end is credit unions; the open-market cards built for bad credit run 23.89%–35.9% based on the issuer disclosures we track.
Is a 25% APR high for a credit card?
It’s near the current national average — the Fed’s all-accounts average is 20.94%. High or not, the APR only costs you money if you carry a balance; paying the statement in full each month makes any APR 0% in practice.