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News: Fed Keeps Interest Rates Steady - Credit-Land.com

After three rate cuts this year, the Federal Reserve halted any further changes to interest rates and showed no intention to raise them soon.

At the final meeting in December, the Federal Reserve left the interest rates unchanged. The Fed policymakers unanimously voted to keep rates where they are. Only four policymakers saw higher rates in 2020. Fed officials were comfortable to keep the rates hover between 1.5% and 1.75% for now.

The federal funds rate is the central interest rate in the U.S. financial market. It influences other interest rates such as the prime rate, which is used in credit card interest rates, loan's rates, mortgage's and savings' rates.

This year saw three cuts of the central bank benchmark rate and major banks wasted little time lowering credit card rates accordingly. The Fed is anticipating keeping rates steady in 2020 and saw only one increase in 2021. This means that credit card interest rates will be relatively steady in 2020 as well.

For consumers, steady federal funds rate means stability for one more year. Since the rate is used to control interest rates, no increase means borrowing money won't become more expensive. But at the same time, no rate cut means interest rates won't go down. This period of "stability" can be used to pay off debt and think about better money management.