Gephardt Busts Inflation: The key to saving money on your credit card bills

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SALT LAKE CITY — More Utahns are carrying debt, but the thing is – many of those folks have no idea how much interest they are paying on their debt.

Ask just about anybody if they know what their credit card's annual percentage rate is and you will get just about the same answer.

These are the responses I got:

"I do not, but my wife does."

"I do not."

"Pretty high."

It's not just good people on the streets being accosted by a reporter who are not wise to their APRs. Not knowing your credit card interest rate is a bit of a norm. According to a new survey from Bankrate, 43% of people who carry credit card debt "say they don't know the attached interest rates." As high as 50% of younger zoomers are ignorant of their APRs.

"It does bug me that so many people don't know their rate," said Bankrate's senior industry analyst, Ted Rossman, who said trying to get out of debt without knowing your rate makes it really tough to come up with a good strategy to pay it off.

"If you have debt, I mean, no shame — a lot of people do. But you have to make that interest rate a priority."

Not doing so could have you working harder than you need to.

For example, a credit card with an interest rate hovering near 30% will make you pay more to borrow money than a credit card at 20% APR. So rather than making equal payments to both cards, paying off the 30% APR card makes more financial sense. Or better yet, maybe you qualify for a zero-balance transfer card that will let you transfer all that debt to a card where you will not have to pay any interest for 12, 18, or 24 months.

"There's a saying that credit cards are like power tools, they could be really useful or they could be dangerous," Rossman said.

You have seen the ads: Credit card companies love to entice potential borrowers with their perks — airline miles, rewards points, cashback and what have you. So it may not surprise you to know the Bankrate study found that people who did not know their interest rates did know about their perks.

Do you know what your credit card's annual percentage rate is?

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Matt Gephardt

You might say that Matt Gephardt was born into journalism. On the day he arrived at the Indiana hospital, his father, a reporter, had to quickly rush away after the delivery in order to front a news report. Matt’s television debut came a few years later when, as a toddler, he was used by an Indianapolis reporter to demonstrate how prescription drugs can be mistaken for candy. Matt’s “professional” career in the business began when he was 17 years old, attending high school in Los Angeles, and he landed a summer-job as a teleprompter operator in the Salt Lake City market. He moved to Utah, enrolled at the University of Utah, and never looked back. In the more than 20 years since, Matt has worked virtually every newsroom job: production crew, video editing, video photography, producing, executive producing. In 2010, Matt made the jump in front of the camera as an investigative “watchdog” reporter. Matt’s reporting has not only earned him several journalism awards, it has also led to law and policy changes at local, state and federal levels. When not investigating on behalf of Utah consumers, Matt enjoys “urban hiking” with his wife and three children – setting out on foot towards Sugarhouse or Downtown hoping to run into a friendly group of people gathered at a park, a festival or a new store or restaurant to try out. Matt is absolutely thrilled to be working at KSL where the commitment to ethical journalism, fairness and community is in lockstep with his own ideals.