Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced bipartisan legislation to immediately cap credit card interest rates at ten percent for five years. The legislation follows President Trump’s campaign promise of a ten percent interest rate cap.
“Working Americans are drowning in record credit card debt while the biggest credit card issuers get richer and richer by hiking their interest rates to the moon. It’s not just wrong, it’s exploitative. And it needs to end,” Senator Hawley said. “Capping credit card interest rates at 10%, just like President Trump campaigned on, is a simple way to provide meaningful relief to working people. Let’s do it.”
“During the campaign, President Trump pledged to cap credit card interest rates at ten percent,” Senator Sanders said. “Today, I am proud to be introducing bipartisan legislation with Senator Hawley to do just that. When large financial institutions charge over 25 percent interest on credit cards, they are not engaged in the business of making credit available. They are engaged in extortion and loan sharking. We cannot continue to allow big banks to make huge profits ripping off the American people. This legislation will provide working families struggling to pay their bills with desperately needed financial relief.”
The Sanders-Hawley bill comes after a recent Forbes report found that the average credit card interest rate is 28.6%, despite banks’ ability to borrow money from the Federal Reserve at less than 4.5%. Exorbitant interest rates and sky-high fees have allowed credit card companies to make enormous profits, supplying their executives with generous compensation at the expense of hard-working Americans.