SAN DIEGO — The Federal Reserve has raised interest rates a historic five times this year.
This isn't just impacting the housing market, but credit card users as well.
According to the finance website CreditCards.com, the national average card annual percentage rate rose to 18.79% on Wednesday.
That figure is at an all-time high. But those increases may not be done just yet.
Unlike mortgage rates, which you are locked into, credit card companies can routinely change rates on market conditions.
CBS 8's Shannon Handy recently got a notice in the mail saying that the interest rate on her Macy's card, which she rarely uses, is going up to 28.99% solely due to market conditions.
"If you're living paycheck to paycheck and costs are 15 to 20% more, what are you gonna do? Credit card debt....so it's a problem," said David Reyes, founder of the financial planning firm Reyes Financial Architecture.
California has the highest total credit card debt in the country at over 120 billion dollars. That's according to the financial website WalletHub, which found the average California household had $8,505 in credit card debt as of Q2 2022 - a 4.5% increase from the previous year.
So what can consumers do to combat these rising interest rates?
Reyes says the first step is to call the credit card company and try to negotiate.
"See if they'll reduce the rate because they want to keep you because they want to get paid interest," Reyes said. "Especially if you have a balance they're going to be more interested in hopefully negotiating with you to keep that because that's how they make money."
In extreme situations, where your debt is mounting, Reyes suggests looking into an equity line of credit, a reverse mortgage, or an equity share - which is becoming more popular.
"It's a way for a company to pay off debt or give you money for home improvement - but there's no payment," Reyes said. "In exchange for that, 10 years down the road you share in a certain percentage of the equity."
Alan Gin, an economics professor at University of San Diego's Knauss School of Business, says consumers should also make sure their credit score is up to date and accurate.
"Because if there's a mistake there it could cost you a lot of money because you might be classified as a higher risk when you're actually aren't," Gin said.
According to Gin, the ultimate goal of all of these rate hikes is to slow the economy to fight inflation.
"Minimize your use of credit cards," Gin said. "Use it only for necessities."
Both Gin and Reyes predict that more hikes are likely coming, which is why they say that consumers need to control their spending and take care of their debt sooner rather than later.
"Be your own advocate, but be smart about things," Reyes said. "I think we need to live within our means a little bit more."
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