Commercial banks charged an average of 11.86% on 24-month personal loans, and 22.15% on credit card balances that were assessed interest, according to the Federal Reserve’s G.19 consumer credit release of Sept. 8. The personal loan rate is 53.5% of the card rate, a gap of 10.29 percentage points. The two figures come from different measures, and the release says so.
What the G.19 table lists
The Federal Reserve’s G.19 release, published Sept. 8 with a July reference month for balances, includes a table of interest rates that commercial banks charged. Second-quarter 2026 entries in the table include 11.86% for 24-month personal loans, 20.94% for credit cards on all accounts, 22.15% for credit cards on accounts assessed interest, 7.14% for 60-month new car loans and 6.97% for 72-month new car loans.
The same release reports that total consumer credit grew at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.2% in July, with revolving credit up 2.5% and nonrevolving credit up 4.8%. Those balance figures cover a different month from the rate table and are separate data.
Put the other way around, the card series runs about 1.87 times the personal loan average, since 22.15 divided by 11.86 is 1.868. The table covers commercial banks only, so credit unions, online lenders and finance companies fall outside these three figures, and their rates for similar loans may differ.
Two card rates that answer different questions
The card rate of 22.15% is the figure in the headline, and it comes with a specific definition. It is the series for accounts assessed interest, described in the release as the annualized ratio of total finance charges to total average daily balances. It covers balances that actually carried interest, which is a narrower group than every open card account.
The 20.94% figure is a different series. The release describes it as the stated APR averaged across all credit card accounts, whether or not a balance is carried. It sits 1.21 points below the 22.15% because the two are not measuring the same set of accounts or the same quantity. A cardholder who carries a balance experiences a rate closer to the higher series.
What a personal loan rate represents
The 11.86% is an average across loans that banks made. Individual borrowers were quoted different rates, and the average says nothing about whether any given borrower would have been offered it. Lenders price on credit history, income and the amount borrowed. The car loan rates in the same table, at 7.14% and 6.97%, sit well below the personal loan figure, in part because a vehicle secures those loans and a personal loan is generally unsecured.
The card and personal loan series also differ in structure. A personal loan has a fixed term and payment schedule; a card balance can be carried indefinitely, and its rate can change with prime. The Federal Reserve’s H.15 release puts the prime rate at 7.00% for Sept. 21-25, after the Fed raised its target range in September.
Two years of payments, in numbers
Suppose a $5,000 balance were repaid in 24 equal monthly payments at each rate. At 11.86%, the payment is $235.04 and total interest comes to $640.97. At 22.15%, the payment is $259.76 and total interest is $1,234.27. The difference of $593.30 in interest is arithmetic on the two published averages and a standard amortization formula, not a quote from any lender.
The illustration has limits. A card balance is rarely repaid on a fixed schedule, new purchases change the balance, and the 22.15% is a portfolio average and not the APR on any one card. Fees, promotional offers and a borrower’s own rate would all change the result. The comparison shows how the published averages translate into dollars when the term is held the same, and nothing more.
The September rate decision arrives after this data
The G.19 rates describe an earlier period, before the Federal Reserve acted in September. The Committee’s Sept. 16 statement raised the target range for the federal funds rate by a quarter point, to 3-3/4 to 4 percent, and prime followed. Variable card rates that are tied to prime move by the same quarter point, so the 22.15% average would be expected to drift upward in later releases, while a personal loan that has a fixed rate would not change for a borrower who already holds one.
That expectation is a matter of arithmetic on how the products are built, and no later G.19 figure has been published to confirm it. The next quarterly rate table will show how much of the move appears in the averages.
The source table
Every rate above comes from one Federal Reserve table: 11.86% for two-year personal loans, 22.15% for card accounts assessed interest and 20.94% for all accounts. The Fed’s notes on the table give the definitions used here. The dollar comparison and the ratio of 53.5% are derived from those published percentages.
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This article was prepared with AI assistance and checked against the Federal Reserve G.19 and H.15 releases linked above.
