Credit Basics
Council warns N.Y.ers on credit cards rates
By MICHAEL SAUL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU
If credit card debt is giving you a holiday hangover, the City Council advises making a New Year's resolution to get a better interest rate.
A City Council probe of 387 credit cards offered to New Yorkers shows consumers can save thousands - and decades in payments - by carefully choosing which credit card they use.
"Our investigation reveals that a consumer who shops around can save literally thousands of dollars in fees and interest paying off credit card debt," said City Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Queens), chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Committee.
The report recommends requiring the city to post credit card information on an easy-to-use, searchable Web site that allows consumers to compare cards. Gioia plans to introduce legislation next year that will require the city's Consumer Affairs Department to include this information on its Web site.
According to the report:
- The average household credit card debt is $4,126.
- Seniors, young adults and low-income households are disproportionately
affected by credit card debt
. - Interest rates have gone up. The average annual percentage rate of the credit cards surveyed was 13.77%, up from 12.71% last year.
"After we've all spent hard-earned money on holiday gifts for family, friends and loved ones, we shouldn't be giving credit card companies a gift in excessive interest payments and fees," Gioia said.
Howard Dvorkin, founder of Consolidated Credit Counseling Services, a Florida-based nonprofit, agreed that consumers must be careful with credit cards.
"Anything that involves finances, people need to look around and compare," he said.
But Dvorkin questioned whether it made sense for a city government to undertake the complex task of putting together a Web site on credit cards that would need to be updated constantly.
"This is a massive undertaking and one that should be viewed very carefully," he said. "There are so many credit card offerings ... and the information changes daily."
