Do you care about APR?

[KJinNC]

To me, lower interest rates are better mainly just in case something ever goes wrong, and I have to carry a balance.

Having a lower rate within the range that a given card offers would also indicate that you qualified more easily or have higher standing in the credit card issuer's eyes, for whatever that's worth.

[TSlop]

I don't care one bit; I have never carried a balance on a credit card. If I do buy something big, I use store credit cards/line of credit to get 0% interest (furniture, Best Buy, etc).

However, if I ever get into a future situation that may require emergency credit card use, I'll probably open up a BT/0% first-year card and move it over to there.

[iv]

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@iced wrote:
Maybe I'm giving humanity too much credit for being smarter than they really are, but how is low APR a trap? The vast, vast majority are unable to PIF because they simply charged way more than they could afford to repay on items they didn't need in the first place. They weren't lured or trapped by low APR or deceptive practices; they jumped in with both feet singing "yay, free money!" knowing full well it wasn't. So it's either these people are dumber than I thought or they're happily being enslaved to interest.

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Sure, there are plenty of people who just charge without ever considering the APR or payback terms...

...but not everyone.  And in order to cast an even wider net, lenders use teaser rates which do work to catch people who put some (but not enough) thought into it.

As just one example, consider someone who would never even consider buying a "nice to have" but not "needed" item on a 29.99% APR card.

Offer them that same item on a 24-month 0% teaser rate, with deferred interest at 29.99% - and you'll catch more buyers/borrowers.  Will some of them "play the game right" and pay it off in time? Sure.  But quite a few will not quite have paid 100% off in time... and will get hit with the full 2 years of 29.99% interest - something they never would have jumped into "up front".

Teaser rates WORK.  They pull people into the interest rate/debt trap that might otherwise avoid it.

Does that mean that you are giving them too much credit (pun not intended)? Maybe.

More importantly, many people give themselves too much credit - thinking that they are "on top of things" or that they "know the rules of the game", but actually miss small but important details.  For the vast majority of people, handling credit correctly is like navigating a minefield: some are using slightly incomplete maps, while others are just wandering through an unmarked meadow.  In both cases, something is likely to go "Boom!".

[Aim_High]

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@galahad15 wrote:

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APR is of critical importance to me, and probably *the* single most important factor when it comes to wanting to app for a card, for me.  I largely divide my cards into 2 camps:  higher-APR cards that I PIF monthly that have good rewards; and (2) lower-APR cards, with or without rewards, that I may use for the purpose of essentially a short-term loan.  My personal favorite types of credit cards are the ones that are below 10% interest, that also come with rewards programs (can sometimes be hard to find yes but they are out there, I know from personal experience).  I will never carry a balance on a non-0% promo card with an APR higher than 10%.

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Yes, APR's are of critical important to you, as evidenced by your signature!  Wow.  I don't think I've seen such a collection of low APR cards not to mention with rewards.  That is quite impressive. I looked in the past year and had found a few dozen cards below 10%, but mostly from smaller banks or credit unions and without rewards for the most part.  And almost nothing was below 7.5% APR.

How did you manage to assemble this list?  Are many of these cards older and grandfathered in at lower rates?  Did you negotiate with banks to lower your APRs significantly, and if so, how did you get them to go so low???  I have asked for rate reductions but never had success down to single digits.   You even somehow managed to get mainstream cards from Bank of America, Citibank, and FNBO at lower than standard rates.  (That FNBO AMEX you have at 8.25%V is advertised now at 21.24% APRV!!!)

I believe everyone should have at least one or two, but I do wonder how of of these do you plan to actually use?  I'm just curious, especially on the ones without rewards or where the rewards are less competitive.  I like having something like this for an emergency but wouldn't plan to need this many accounts with low APRs.  Like someone else mentioned, I would prefer to have a few low apr cards but also the cash-back cards so I wouldn't miss out on the best rewards on purchases I can PIF. 

Some of your more impressive cards in signature:

Bourns Employees Federal Credit Union

Platinum Plus Visa 

(5.49% Fixed, with rewards, $4K)

Unify Federal Credit Union

Visa Platinum

(6.99% Variable, $15K)

Premier America Credit Union

Premier Privileges Rewards MC

(7.5% Fixed with 1.5% rewards $20K)

First National Bank of Omaha

American Express

(8.25% variable with 1.5% rewards $60K)

Unify  Federal Credit Union

Visa Platinum

(8.99% Fixed, $25K)

Bank of America

Cash Rewards WMC

(9.99%  $24K)

Barclay Bank

Ring Card

(10% variable $1.9K)

Bank of America

Travel Rewards with NPSL

(11.24% Variable $17.6K)

Citibank

DoubleCash WMC

(11.24%,  $23.8K)

[EW800]

I don't really care about APR, mainy becuse I have not carried a balance on a credit card since about 5+ years ago.  I pray I never carry CC balances again, but if I do, I will care a lot about the rates!  I HATE paying interest.  

[Namaste7]

Yes - I care about the APR and account fees associated with these accounts

• CU credit cards or PLOCs
• Installment loans

No - I pay the following accounts in full unless I'm offered a 0% promotion or 0% deferred financing offer.

• National bank cards
• Retail cards

[Turbobuick]

As someone with a higher fico score, if a card issuer gave me a rate over 20%, I'd call it a punitive rate. Sure, they will issue me credit, but consider me somewhat of a risk to borrow money. We've all learned that good credit gets you good lending rates (relatively speaking). I feel the APR and the CL are additional measurements of that trust. Hoping no one needs to borrow money against those kind of rates.

I have never called to get the rates lowered during my 45 yrs of credit life. The rates vary between 7.9 and 17.2 with most being 15-16%. 

And yes, for most of us it doesn't really matter monetarily.

[galahad15]

Hi there & many thanks for the kind words and for your very thoughtful message, I deeply appreciate it!    Also sorry I did not have an opportunity to respond sooner, as I was out of town for the Labor Day holiday weekend, and so just had an initial opportunity to take a look at your post a few mins. ago.

In response to your questions:  the origin of quite a few of the cards were based on themanwhocan's outstanding low-APR and fixed-APR card charts and lists; tbh he deserves a lot of the credit    For example, the BEFCU card and the cards from Unify FCU (formerly Western FCU and as listed in his card charts, iirc) were obtained just by apping based on the card info he had provided.  The PACU card was also referenced by the manwhocan in another cc forum.  Sadly with the recent increases in the the prime rate up until the last quarter-point decrease not too long ago, Unify and PACU have slightly increased the go-to APRs for new apps, best-available rates are still below 10%, just a small amount higher as I can best recall, something like 8.45% F for the PACU card and/or 9.74% F for one of the Unify cards I believe?  The Unify cards and the PACU card are also still open to new apps and without geo restrictions, if anyone has any potential interest?  IME, I did actually still have to negotiate with Unify a few times and take a few HPs over approximately a year to get the lowest-available rates, since my original approvals had higher rates around 12.xx% F, and later 9.99% F and finally 8.99% F, since I had to improve my credit score and CLs over time (for the fixed-rate Unify card for example to get the lowest rate, you have to have a FICO EX 2 Auto Score of between 740-750 and a CL of at least $15k; also for the lowest-available APR on the variable-rate Unify card, you still need a minimum FICO EX 2 Auto Score of between 740-750, but any SL you receive should still qualify you for the lowest go-to APR).

The BEFCU card I was incredibly lucky to be approved for, since technically they are geo-fenced to California, but when I apped online just for the heck of it around 2017 on a whim lol, tbh hadn't been expecting to be approved for it, the but app didn't kick me out but instead somehow completed the app successfully, and I was approved for the card soon thereafter.  I think themanwhocan had listed an affinity group you could join in the past to qualify for membership, but I believe that another post on the forum had mentioned that they had closed that loophole?  Also currently unknown if BEFCU will still allow non-Cali residents to be approved for the card the same way?  I only know of one other forum member who had been able to get approved for the BEFCU card, based on my recollection I believe that she was approved for somewhere around 7.xx% F?

Yes some of the cards are grandfathered, for example, the BoA Cash Rewards WMC was originally a non-rewards BoA Platinum Plus MC that I was approved for in 2007, back in the days issuers more frequently were still offering fixed-rate, single-digit rates -- BoA later offered an upgrade option to the Cash Rewards card. The FNBO Amex card was actually a limited-time card offering that FNBO was offering to people interested in apping for it in 2015.  My Barclayring card was the original grandfathered version that Barclay originally offered starting at around 2012 or thereabouts, with a then-goto rate of 8% V, although they later refreshed the card and increased the rate to somewhere around 14.xx% for new applicants.  Also the Citi DC card approved around 2009 - 2009 that went through several conversions; started out as a PremierPass, later converted to Citi TYp and finally to DC.  Similar story for the BoA Travel Rewards card, which began life approved in 2008 as a non-rewards Platinum Plus card, and later upgraded by BoA to the TR card.

On the question of the low-APR cards I actually use:  all of the ones below 10% get some kind of use.  The BoA Cash Rewards WMC is used for gas and groceries and PIF every month.  BEFCU and PACU are presently carrying some small balances that I am gradually paying off as quickly as possible over time.  The Unify cards -- since they have no BT fee and no cash advance fees -- have been used sparingly for a few small cash advances and BTs, and are carrying small balances around about $1,000 that are being paid off over time.  The FNBO Amex has a combination of a 0% promo and and some carried balances that are being paid off as rapidly as possible as well.

Thanks again for your very generous compliments and hope this answers your questions ok!  If you have any other questions, please freel free to ask and I would be happy to answer, to the best of my ability 

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@Aim_High wrote:

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Yes, APR's are of critical important to you, as evidenced by your signature!  Wow.  I don't think I've seen such a collection of low APR cards not to mention with rewards.  That is quite impressive. I looked in the past year and had found a few dozen cards below 10%, but mostly from smaller banks or credit unions and without rewards for the most part.  And almost nothing was below 7.5% APR.

How did you manage to assemble this list?  Are many of these cards older and grandfathered in at lower rates?  Did you negotiate with banks to lower your APRs significantly, and if so, how did you get them to go so low???  I have asked for rate reductions but never had success down to single digits.   You even somehow managed to get mainstream cards from Bank of America, Citibank, and FNBO at lower than standard rates.  (That FNBO AMEX you have at 8.25%V is advertised now at 21.24% APRV!!!)

I believe everyone should have at least one or two, but I do wonder how of of these do you plan to actually use?  I'm just curious, especially on the ones without rewards or where the rewards are less competitive.  I like having something like this for an emergency but wouldn't plan to need this many accounts with low APRs.  Like someone else mentioned, I would prefer to have a few low apr cards but also the cash-back cards so I wouldn't miss out on the best rewards on purchases I can PIF. 

Some of your more impressive cards in signature:

Bourns Employees Federal Credit Union

Platinum Plus Visa 

(5.49% Fixed, with rewards, $4K)

Unify Federal Credit Union

Visa Platinum

(6.99% Variable, $15K)

Premier America Credit Union

Premier Privileges Rewards MC

(7.5% Fixed with 1.5% rewards $20K)

First National Bank of Omaha

American Express

(8.25% variable with 1.5% rewards $60K)

Unify  Federal Credit Union

Visa Platinum

(8.99% Fixed, $25K)

Bank of America

Cash Rewards WMC

(9.99%  $24K)

Barclay Bank

Ring Card

(10% variable $1.9K)

Bank of America

Travel Rewards with NPSL

(11.24% Variable $17.6K)

Citibank

DoubleCash WMC

(11.24%,  $23.8K)

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[unc0mm0n1]

I wouldn't care if my APR was 300% if it meant getting more rewards on my credit card. I haven't paid a late fee since college (20 years ago) and I don't plan on that changing. 

[Anonymous]

I'd gladly take higher APR for greater rewards payback.  Wouldn't it be cool if you could pick?  For every (say) 10% you raise your APR, you gain (say) .1% in rewards... I'd gladly take a 99.99% APR if it meant taking my 2% general spend card to say 3%.