The Corporate Debt is going to BITE so hard in the next recession -- I say, bring them the pitch forks and every person who had a C in their title be prepared for clawbacks!
But "Standard APRs" are crazy high at around 14-18%. I have never understood why credit rates are so high compared to literally any other type of borrowing. I also don't understand how standard rates are sky high while promotional rates are near the rock bottom.
It's baffling. But it's helped me manage big sums of debts during a couple of professional transitions I've gone through over the years. Without those 3-5% balance transfers I would still be deeply in debt today.
Promo rates are the bank's marketing department paying to hook in the card holder on the probability that they will use the card for a long time. The standard rate largely factors in the cost of doing transactions (shared with the merchant percentage) and covering the risk of default.
The 14-18% rates go to 24%+ if the card holder moves to a higher risk class (recently defaulted on another card, missing payment dates, etc).