Prime Rate- What is it?
Prime Rate is a technical term that generally springs up in financial news and also gets mentioned in the terms of loans and credit cards. But what exactly is Prime Rate?
Prime Rate is the rate that the federal government normally charges interest at on the money banks borrow from day to day. It is based on the Federal Funds Rate and is nearly 3% or 300 points above the federal funds rate.
This means every time the federal funds rate is at 3%, the prime rate shoots to 6%. And every time prime rate shoots up, it affects almost all the interest rates including mortgage, credit cards and loans. Get More Info at RoutingNumberUSA.
The above fact raises the question that if the prime rate is actually 3% more than the federal funds rate, then how is the interest rate on mortgage and loans higher? The main reason is to make profits off the interest earned. Besides this, the interest rates levied on credit cards are normally of variable rates. The companies which issue credit cards and provide loans have the liberty to put on extra interest on the prime rate.
The reason for using the prime rate is due to it being a good standard in the industry. The federal government actually has a big role to play in the rise and fall of interest rates.
It is generally noticeable with credit cards that there are normally separate pricing scales for a credit card. Even though the interest rate is under 10% including the prime rate, but there exist 2 to 3 different tiers where the rates easily soar to 20%. This is independent of default rates but depends on credit history, the card and the market where you are being offered the rate for the credit card.
The prime rates remain unchanged for a long time since they are dependent on federal funds rate and they rarely change. But in a case of an economic crisis, the Federal Reserve might lower the rate to arouse drops in variable interest rates. Such drops boost banks to keep lending to customers instead to holding back money due to poor economic conditions. In general, the prime rates stay the same and financial institutions keep on using it as a foundation for their interest rates.









