The Nation - News from April 22, 1986

Banks are charging the nation’s 71.6 million credit card holders an average of 19.37% interest, more than twice what the institutions pay for the money, Rep. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. Credit card interest rates could have been more than four points lower if banks made the same profit on the cards that they earned on other types of loans, Schumer said. Kirk Willison, a spokesman for the American Bankers Assn., said consumers should think of the credit card rate as a service charge rather than an interest charge.