How High Can Credit Card Interest Rate Be?

Contributed by mm | February 16, 2005 02:12 PM PST

What's the highest APR card in your wallet? Mine is a Providian card I received earlier in my journey, when my credit card was in the low 600s. The card bears an APY of 25.99%, which almost doubles the APY of any other cards I have. But if you think 25.99% is a very high APR, you are wrong.

According to CardWeb, the highest APR in US is currently 41.75% (Prime + 36.25%), offered by CompuCredit's Aspire VISA on delinquent balances. Plus, a UK card "Vanquis VISA", issued by Provident Financial PLC, pushed the bar to 69.5% with a maximum credit limit of ... US$285.

More notes on these two products:

Aspire Card: I was unable to find the 41.75% APY offer from its AspireCard website. The closest is 30.50% on Aspire Visa Gold. Also take a breadth before you check out the numerous fees attached to the card:

Account Opening Fee: $29.50
Annual Fee: $150
Monthly Maintenance Fee: $6.50 ($78 per year)
Transaction fee for Cash Advances: 5% of the advance with a $5 minimum
Late payment fee: $35
Overlimit fee: $35

Provident Financial PLC: I didn't find the aforementioned card either, but take a look at the cash loan offers from its two subsidiaries:

Provident Personal Credit: Typical APR for Visa Electron loan: 177%
Greenwood Personal Credit: Typical APR for a cash loan = 399.7%

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Comments

>>> Gary Williams Commented on February 17, 2005

They should have named it Aspire Visa Plutonium instead of Aspire Visa Gold...

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