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Credit card rates climb again

This week MBNA shareholders voted to approve a merger with Bank of America. For a number of years, MBNA has been the issuing bank for Wachovia-branded credit cards, meaning Wachovia credit card customers are actually served by MBNA. In a related announcement on the same day as the MBNA merger vote, Wachovia and MBNA agreed to end their partnership next year, and Wachovia will begin issuing its own credit cards in January of 2006.

"In a few months, the credit card landscape will look significantly different than it did just a year earlier," says Justin McHenry, Research Director of Index Credit Cards. "Bank of America will likely have swallowed MBNA, Chase has already acquired Bank One. That?s major consolidation among the largest credit card issuers."

Business reward credit cards rose to an average 11.67% APR, up from 11.64% last week and 11.31% a month earlier. The significant jump in business reward cards versus standard business credit cards can be attributed to the fact that standard cards are more likely to offer fixed rates, while reward card rates are likely to be variable. The Advanta Platinum BusinessCard referenced above was the lowest rate business reward credit card at 7.99%.