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Will my credit card interest rates drop in October?
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Last week, the Federal Reserve announced a significant rate cut of 50 basis points — twice as high as what most analysts expected — which could have a positive impact on various forms of debt. While the Fed rate doesn’t directly drive consumer interest rates, these rate changes tend to have a ripple effect on borrowing tools like mortgages and personal loans, which are closely tied to the federal funds rate. As a result, loan rates tend to see an immediate impact when the Fed takes action.
Right now, though, millions of Americans are grappling with another form of debt: high-rate credit card debt. The average cardholder is currently carrying nearly $8,000 in credit card debt at a time when the average credit card interest rate is sitting near 23%, a record high. As a result, about 20% of cardholders are maxed out and credit card payment delinquencies are rising, so any credit card interest rate reduction would be welcomed by those who are burdened by this type of costly debt.
But credit cards exist in a different category than loans, and the relationship between Fed rate cuts and credit card interest rates is far from straightforward. While the central bank’s actions ripple through various sectors of the economy, their impact on credit card debt is often muted and delayed. So how likely is it that credit card interest rates will fall this October?
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Will my credit card interest rates drop in October?
Credit card interest rates could potentially drop in October, but it’s not likely. Credit card interest rates are variable and are typically tied to the prime rate, which is influenced by, but not identical to, the federal funds rate. And while the prime rate does tend to follow the Fed’s moves, credit card issuers retain considerable control over how and when they adjust their rates.
This means that the Fed’s decision may prompt some movement in credit card interest rates, but it’s unlikely to be immediate or substantial. While credit card companies are generally quick to raise interest rates in response to increases in the federal funds rate, they tend to take a slower approach when it comes to passing on savings from rate cuts. So, it’s unlikely that any card issuers will lower rates substantially over the next few weeks — not in response to the Fed’s rate cut, anyway.
But even if issuers do adjust rates downward, the impact will almost certainly be minimal. For example, even a 25- or 50-basis-point reduction would only lower a 23% interest rate to around 22.5% or 22%. This reduction, though helpful, won’t offer significant relief to those who are dealing with thousands of dollars in credit card debt.
Credit card interest rates have also been climbing rapidly for the last several years, and that uptick has been driven by a variety of factors beyond just the federal funds rate. Competition in the rewards card market, regulatory changes and evolving risk assessments by issuers have all played a role in the rising credit card rate environment. And while the Fed’s rate cut may offer some hope, it’s unlikely to reverse these broader trends in a meaningful way anytime soon.
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Other ways to lower your credit card rates now
Instead of waiting for credit card interest rates to drop as a result of the Fed’s actions, there are several other options you can consider to try and reduce the burden of high credit card interest rates.
One is to consider a balance transfer. Many credit card companies offer promotional 0% APR balance transfer cards, allowing you to move your debt from a high-interest card to one with no interest for a set period. This allows you time to aggressively pay down your principal balance without accruing more interest.
Another approach is debt consolidation, which involves taking out a loan with a lower interest rate to pay off multiple high-interest credit cards. By consolidating your debt into a single loan with a fixed monthly payment, you can save on interest and simplify your financial obligations. This option tends to be best if your credit score allows you to qualify for a loan with a significantly lower rate than your current credit cards.
For those facing more severe financial difficulties, debt management programs may be an effective option for lowering your credit card interest rates and creating a structured repayment plan. Unlike debt forgiveness, which can hurt your credit score, debt management programs focus on making your debt more manageable while keeping your credit intact.
The bottom line
While the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut has raised hopes for lower borrowing costs, cardholders may not see much direct relief from this change this October. With credit card issuers slow to pass on savings from rate cuts, waiting for your rates to drop might not be the most effective strategy. Exploring alternatives like balance transfers, debt consolidation and debt management programs could be the better route for taking control of your financial situation and working toward reducing your credit card debt this October.
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Bryan Kohberger’s lawyers ask judge to ban death penalty in Idaho murders case; victim’s mother says “he deserves to die”
Attorneys for a man charged in the stabbing deaths of four University of Idaho students asked a judge to take the death penalty off the table Thursday, arguing that international, federal and state law all make it inappropriate for the case. But a victim’s mother who attended the hearing said the suspect “deserves to die.”
Bryan Kohberger is accused of the Nov. 13, 2022, killings of Ethan Chapin, Xana Kernodle, Madison Mogen and Kaylee Goncalves. Investigators said they were able to link Kohberger – then a graduate student at nearby Washington State University – to the crime from DNA found on a knife sheath at the scene, surveillance videos and cellphone data.
When asked to enter a plea last year, Kohberger stood silent, prompting a judge to enter a not guilty plea on his behalf. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty if he is convicted. In September, Kohberger was booked into jail in Boise, where his trial was moved the week before.
During a pre-trial motion hearing, Kohberger’s defense team made a broad range of arguments against the death penalty, saying in part that it does not fit today’s standards of decency, that it is cruel to make condemned inmates sit for decades on death row awaiting execution and that it violates an international treaty prohibiting the torture of prisoners.
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But 4th District Judge Stephen Hippler questioned many of those claims, saying that the international treaty they referenced was focused on ensuring that prisoners are given due process so they are not convicted and executed without a fair trial.
Prosecutors noted that the Idaho Supreme Court has already considered many of those arguments in other capital cases and allowed the death penalty to stand.
Still, by bringing up the issues during the motion hearing, Kohberger’s defense team took the first step toward preserving their legal arguments in the court record, potentially allowing them to raise them again on appeal.
The judge said he would issue a written ruling on the motions later.
Victim’s parents attend hearing
Kristi and Steve Goncalves, the parents of Kaylee Goncalves, attended the hearing. Afterward they said the details of the case show the death penalty is merited.
“You’ve got four victims, all in one house – that’s more than enough,” Steve Goncalves said.
Kristi Goncalves said she talked to the coroner and knows what happened to her daughter.
“If he did anything like he did to our daughter to the others, then he deserves to die,” she said.
Steve Goncalves told “48 Hours” last year that “there’s evidence to show that she awakened and tried to get out of that situation,” saying “she was trapped” based on the way the bed was set up.
Kaylee Goncalves/Instagram
Kohberger’s attorneys have said he was out for a drive the night of the killings, something he often did to look at the sky.
His trial is scheduled to begin next August and is expected to last up to three months. The Goncalves family said they have rented a home in Boise so they can attend.
Goncalves’ family said in the spring that they were frustrated by how long it has taken the case to progress through the judicial system.
“This case is turning into a hamster wheel of motions, hearings, and delayed decisions,” the family said in a statement.
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Israeli soccer fans attacked in Amsterdam, with five reportedly hospitalized and dozens of suspects arrested
Amsterdam — Antisemitic rioters “actively sought out Israeli supporters to attack and assault them” after a soccer match in Amsterdam, authorities in the Netherlands said Friday, with police reporting five people hospitalized and 62 detained after a night of violence between. The police did not mention the nationality of any of those injured or arrested after the scenes of chaos in the Dutch capital.
Israel’s government said it was helping coordinate flights home for Israeli fans caught up in the violence.
Israel was “doing everything to ensure the safety and security of our citizens who were brutally attacked in the horrific anti-Semitic incident in Amsterdam,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement. “It was decided that it was not necessary to send a professional rescue mission to the Netherlands. Instead, the effort will be focused on providing civil aviation solutions for the recovery of our citizens.”
Israel’s airports authority said the first of two planes being sent to bring citizens of the country home had departed from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv and was expected to arrive in Amsterdam within a few hours.
X/ iAnnet via REUTERS.
Dutch leaders also condemned the violence against the Israeli fans as antisemitic.
The attacks on fans of soccer club Maccabi Tel Aviv came after a Europa League soccer match between their team and the local Amsterdam team Ajax, but there had been clashes between the Israeli fans and locals before the game, too.
The violence erupted despite a ban on a pro-Palestinian demonstration near the soccer stadium imposed by Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema, who’d feared clashes would break out between protesters and supporters of the Israeli club.
The violent clashes reportedly occurred around midnight local time, with numerous fights and acts of vandalism in central Amsterdam.
There were clashes before the game, too, as Maccabi fans were among hundreds to march through central Amsterdam in a pro-Israel demonstration, during which flares were lit and Palestinian flags hung on some streets were reportedly torn down amid chants of “death to the Arabs.”
Mouneb Taim/Anadolu/Getty
In an earlier statement, Netanyahu’s office had said that the prime minister ordered two “rescue planes” to be sent to Amseterdam to evacuate Israeli citizens, but that decision was later reversed. Netanyahu’s office also barred any members of the country’s military from flying to the Netherlands for an indefinite period.
“The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked,” Netanyahu’s office said, adding that Israel’s government “views the premeditated antisemitic attack against Israeli citizens with utmost gravity.”
Netanyahu’s office demanded the Dutch government take “vigorous and swift action” against those involved.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof said on social media that he followed reports of the violence “with horror.”
“Completely unacceptable antisemitic attacks on Israelis. I am in close contact with everyone involved,” he added, saying he’d spoken with Netanyahu and “emphasized that the perpetrators will be tracked down and prosecuted. It is now quiet in the capital.”
In a post on the social media platform X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog Israel denounced the attacks as a “pogrom,” referring to the historic racist attacks on Jews in Russia and eastern Europe, and said they were reminiscent of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that sparked Israel’s ongoing wars in Gaza and Lebanon.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington said on X that “hundreds” of Maccabi fans were “ambushed and attacked in Amsterdam tonight as they left the stadium following a game,” according to AFP. The embassy blamed the violence on a “mob who targeted innocent Israelis.”
Geert Wilders, the far-right nationalist lawmaker whose Party for Freedom won elections in the Netherlands last year and who’s a staunch ally of Israel, reacted to a video apparently showing a Maccabi fan being surrounded by several men.
“Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” Wilders said.
A Qantas plane made an emergency landing Friday due to what the airline said was a “contained engine failure” soon after taking off from Sydney Airport, sparking a grassfire on a nearby runway and causing several flights to be diverted.
The Qantas flight, QF520, was bound for Brisbane and was circling for a “short period of time” before landing safely back at Sydney Airport, Qantas Chief Pilot Captain Richard Tobiano said in the statement.
There was no initial word on the number of people on board.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
“Qantas engineers have conducted a preliminary inspection of the engine and confirmed it was a contained engine failure,” the airline said. “While customers would have heard a loud bang, there was not an explosion.”
The Reuters news agency explains that in a contained engine failure, the engine’s parts stay inside the protective housing meant to keep them from flying out. If they do, they could cause severe damage to the main body of a plane.
Airservices Australia, the government’s aviation regulator, said the engine failure caused “a grass area adjacent to the runway to catch fire” that was swiftly extinguished by firefighters.
DAVID GRAY / AFP via Getty Images
The Airservices’ National Operations Management Centre enacted a 47-minute ground stop at Sydney Airport to ensure the plane could land as quickly as possible, the regulator said in a statement, adding that no one was hurt.
Reuters reports that the airport said all its runways had re-opened by Friday afternoon after the parallel runway had been closed for inspection because of the fire.
The aircraft is a 19-year-old Boeing 737-800, Reuters said, citing Flightradar24. That type of twin-engine passenger plane is designed to be able to fly using only one engine in an emergency, Reuters noted.
Passenger Georgina Lewis said she heard a “bang.”
“One of the engines appeared to have gone. The pilot came on 10 minutes later to explain that they had a problem with a right-hand engine on takeoff,” she told local outlet Channel Nine.
Another passenger, Mark Willacy, a journalist with Australia’s national broadcaster ABC, said the plane struggled to get airborne following the “loud bang” noise.
“That big bang as the wheels were leaving the ground and the shudder, that was like nothing I have ever felt,” he told ABC. “When we landed, there was a lot of applause and cheering amongst the passengers.”
Tobiano said his staff members were “highly trained” to respond to such emergency situations.
“We understand this would have been a distressing experience for customers and we will be contacting all customers this afternoon to provide support,” he said in the statement. “We will also be conducting an investigation into what caused the engine issue.”
Customers were being moved to alternate flights, Qantas said.
Eleven domestic flights were cancelled and four diverted to other airports, a Sydney Airport spokesperson said.
