What this number actually is
The Federal Reserve's G.19 Consumer Credit statistical release reports two interest-rate series for credit cards. TERMCBCCALLNS — the series on this page — is the asset-weighted average APR across all accounts at U.S. commercial banks, regardless of whether the cardholder paid interest that period. TERMCBCCINTNS is the average across only accounts that were assessed interest. The first cut is the canonical headline number. The second is always a few points higher because the population is filtered to balance-carriers — heavier-revolver cardholders pull the average up.
The reason to anchor on the asset-weighted figure is that it's the macro-honest reading. Half of all U.S. cardholders pay their balance in full every month and pay zero APR. The other half revolve and pay very real APRs. The Fed's "all accounts" cut is the only one that captures the whole stock of outstanding card debt at a meaningful blended cost.
How to use this number against your own card
Compare your APR to this average. If your APR is below it, you are in the upper half of card pricing — prime credit profile, likely a no-annual-fee or low-fee card. If your APR is above it, you are in the lower half. If your APR is more than 5 percentage points above this average, you should run our credit card payoff calculator and almost certainly a balance transfer savings calculation. There is no investment portfolio in the country that beats the guaranteed return of paying off card debt at 25%+ APR.
The other comparison worth making is the credit-card APR against the federal funds rate and the prime rate. Most variable-rate cards are priced at prime + a margin (commonly 12–18 percentage points), and prime moves in lockstep with the upper bound of the fed funds target. When the Fed cuts, your APR steps down within one to two billing cycles. When the Fed hikes, your APR steps up just as fast. The G.19 average lags both because it blends in fixed-rate cards and grandfathered promotional APRs.
How credit-card APR connects to the broader picture
Credit-card APR is the most personally felt interest rate in the U.S. economy. It sits downstream of the Fed's policy rate but upstream of household financial stress. When the spread between the average APR and the fed funds rate widens, it is usually a signal that issuers are pricing in higher charge-off expectations — i.e. they see the credit cycle deteriorating. Watching the credit-card APR rise faster than the prime rate is one of the earliest leading indicators that consumer credit is tightening.
For a longer-horizon view, the 24-month personal loan rate is the sibling G.19 series and is worth tracking alongside this one — personal loans are often used to consolidate card debt and the spread between the two rates determines whether consolidation is economically rational. See also all live US rates for the full term structure.
Caveats
The G.19 credit-card series covers commercial banks only. It excludes credit unions (which average roughly 3 percentage points lower) and store-brand retail cards (which average several points higher). The Fed re-benchmarks the survey periodically and small revisions to prior quarters are common. Finally, this is an APR — not an effective interest cost. Promotional zero-APR introductory rates, balance transfer fees, and cash-advance APRs are all separate, and none of them is captured in the headline number.