NEW YORK: With control of Congress hanging on a number of razor-thin races, both Democrats and Republicans are seizing on voters’ frustrations with rising credit card debt to win over inflation-weary Americans.
Credit card interest rates are now over 20% on average – nearly double what they were a decade ago – compounding the burden of monthly payments.
The mix of high rates, a pickup in inflation and rising costs across the broader economy has helped drive the credit card delinquency rate toward its highest level since 2011.
On the campaign trail, Democrats like Texas Senate candidate James Talarico and Florida’s Angie Nixon have championed capping the rates set by credit card companies.
President Donald Trump praised Kansas Senator Roger Marshall for fighting the same “predatory” lenders, and Republican House incumbent Anna Paulina Luna has pushed for bipartisan legislation that would cap credit card rates at 10%.
Support for such policies, widely condemned by the nation’s largest banks, underlines the vital role cost-of-living concerns are expected to play in this week’s midterm elections. Those worries are particularly acute for the voters who can’t pay off their monthly credit card bills.
More than 40% of adults are carrying debt from month to month on their credit cards, according to an analysis by the Century Foundation earlier this year.
About one-third of Americans worry about their debt almost every day, according to a survey by Pew Research Center.
“Rising credit card debt is one tentacle of this octopus of affordability that so many voters feel wrapped around them,” said Republican strategist Mark Weaver.
Trump pitched voters on a 10% credit card rate cap in the final stretch of the 2024 presidential race, a time when affordability was also top of mind for Americans. He revived the idea at the start of 2026, also taking aim at the fees businesses must pay to use credit cards at checkout.
Major banks sharply criticised the proposals, arguing a cap would require them to significantly reduce access to credit for Americans who need it most. JPMorgan Chase & Co chief executive officer Jamie Dimon called the proposal an “economic disaster”.
While the White House has backed away from the idea of a cap, there’s broad-based voter support for the idea – at least temporarily.
A May survey showed 72% of respondents approved of capping credit card interest rates at 10% for one year. That included similar shares of Democrats and Republicans, according to the Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll.
One of those people is Dakota Bradley, 36, a voice actor in Pensacola, Florida. Between high rates and rising costs, the independent voter said he’s accumulated more than US$12,000 in credit card debt over the past eight months.
“It comes down to a choice of putting food on the table or covering the credit card payment,” Bradley said. “With these interest rates, it’s unsustainable.”
For the first time, he voted down-ballot for Democratic candidates. Bradley said he now places more trust in Democrats to address his affordability concerns than Republicans.
Florida’s Nixon has called for a cap of 8%, below the 10% endorsed by progressive stalwarts Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders.
Bipartisan groups of lawmakers have introduced bills in both chambers to codify such caps as well as legislation designed to increase competition and lower swipe fees.
While inflation has cooled from the pandemic-era peaks, the Iran war has sparked a new wave of price increases.
Larger-than-usual tax refunds earlier this year helped cushion the blow from rising gasoline costs, but those funds have since run dry. When adjusted for inflation, wages have declined for six straight months.
The personal saving rate – or the share of disposable income that Americans are putting toward savings – fell in September to the lowest since 2022. — Bloomberg
