United States President Donald Trump has announced a one-year cap on credit card interest rates of 10% effective 20 January 2026.
He made the announcement on Truth Social but did not comment on how the plan would be implemented or how he planned to ensure companies complied.
In a post on the social media platform, he said the new credit card interest rates would improve affordability.
“Please be informed that we will no longer let the American Public be “ripped off” by Credit Card Companies that are charging Interest Rates of 20 to 30%,” he said.
Trump initially made the pledge to lower credit card interest rates during the 2024 presidential election campaign, but analysts dismissed it at the time as such a step required congressional approval.
This occurred as American credit card debt hit a record of more than US$1.1 trillion, reaching US$1.7 trillion in the third quarter of 2024, growing from US$770 billion trillion
Lawmakers from the Democratic and Republican parties have raised concerns about high rates and called for them to be addressed.
When Trump did not initially live up to his promise, left-leaning senators, including Bernie Sanders and Josh Hawley, introduced a bipartisan bill in February 2025 to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for the next five years.
A day before Trump’s announcement, Sanders called the president's inaction “unacceptable”.
“Trump promised to cap credit card interest rates at 10% and stop Wall Street from getting away with murder,” Sanders said in a post to X.
“Instead, he deregulated big banks, charging up to 30% interest on credit cards.
“The result? Last year, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon made $770 million.”
The announcement was also met with scepticism from billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who initially called the announcement a “mistake” before deleting that post.
“My concern about capping rates at 10% is that doing so will inevitably cause millions of Americans to have their cards cancelled as credit card companies lose the ability to adequately price subprime credit risk,” he said in a new post to X.
Much like the response to Sanders and Hawley’s bill, more opposition was espoused by the Bank Policy Institute, the American Bankers Association, the Consumer Bankers Association, the Financial Services Forum and the Independent Community Bankers of America, which issued a joint statement about the announcement:
“We share the President’s goal of helping Americans access more affordable credit,” they said.
“At the same time, evidence shows that a 10% interest rate cap would reduce credit availability and be devastating for millions of American families and small business owners who rely on and value their credit cards, the very consumers this proposal intends to help.”
The 10% credit card interest rate cap will begin on 20 January, the first anniversary of Trump’s second term inauguration.
