How to adjust to high interest rates

What can people do right now to ultimately try and lower that monthly credit card bill? Well, I think the most important thing to do is ask. Just ask for lower rate. People don’t think that they might get that opportunity if they just ask their credit card issuer to lower it. It’s a possibility. Also look at the personal loan rates, which are much lower than 22% or so on average that you might be spending on a credit card rate. So see if you can consolidate your credit card debt with a personal loan, pay it off that way. And then you also may want to switch to a 0% interest balance transfer card, so you’ll pay 0% interest for a certain period of time. Know that when that changes, it’s probably going to go to the prevailing rate, which right now could be well over 20%. Happened to me. I had to pay off a card recently because that rate fluctuated. It went right back up to 25%. But I love that you’re giving us options that are things you can do. It does take a little bit of work. What about this decision in terms of people who are trying to buy a car or a home? Right now the interest rates are remaining the same. They are very high also because if you look at where it was a year ago, we’re talking about 4% or so for a five year new car loan. Now it’s closer to 7% when you look at the 30 year fixed rate mortgage at also around 4% in March of 2022, now up to over 7%. So the key thing to do is see if you can boost your credit score because the higher your credit score the better rate you’re going to get that’s that’s a great thing to do, try to make a larger down payment, easier said than done. Again your money is what you have, but just maybe you wait a little longer so that you can save a bit more and you can have that larger down payment. And for a home mortgage instead of the 30 year fixed rate mortgage may be considered an adjustable rate mortgage again. Adjustable means it’s going to change at some period of time, but it’ll be fixed for a few years, maybe five years, seven years. And then it will change. So just be ready for that and be ready to refinance at that point. So much of this is about timing and I know that you’ve actually said before that there is a slight lining to some of these higher interest rates when it comes to our savings. Tell us a little more. Absolutely. And I’ve talked about high yield savings accounts before, but it’s important to look at the differences. Your average savings account at a bank is less than half a percent right now. That’s how much you’re earning on your money. Go to a high yield savings account, you could be earning more than 5% interest on that account. You want to look at an account that has a low minimum balance that you have to put in and no fees. Cnbc.com has a lot of great options there that you can look at too, but it’s important to sign up now as fast as you can for one of these and get this rate as long as you can for the for your short term savings. Alright and timing. Yeah yes. CNBC Senior Personal Finance Correspondent Sharon Person Sharon. As always, thank you. And for more financial tips, you can always sign up for Sharons Money 101 newsletter with the QR code right there on your screen.