CREDIT CARD RATES ON THEIR WAY DOWN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 4, 1992                   TAG: 9201040148
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short
CREDIT CARD RATES ON THEIR WAY DOWN
A survey released Friday says credit card interest rates dipped below 18 percent to the lowest level in a decade.
Unprecedented criticism of credit card rates and the Federal Reserve's aggressive lowering of interest rates have put pressure on card issuers, said Robert McKinley, president of Ram Research Corp. of Frederick, Md.
Ram Research's national survey of 107 credit-card companies showed the average rate in January at 17.95 percent, compared with the January 1991 average of 18.42 percent.
The companies surveyed have 93 percent of the market. But when rates of the top 10 card issuers are calculated, the average interest rate is considerably higher - 19.6 percent, McKinley said in an interview. The nation's 10 largest issuers have 51 percent of the credit card market.
Other industry analysts were skeptical, though. They said that by their calculations, rates stubbornly remained above 18 percent.
Ram Research attributed the decline to the Federal Reserve's reduction of the discount rate, the interest on loans to banks, from 5 percent in the beginning of the fourth quarter in 1991 to 3 1/2 percent by year's end.
McKinley predicted regional rate wars among banks will erupt nationwide in 1992 as consumers hunt out for bargain priced cards.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB