Trump calls for cap on US credit card interest rates at 10% for a year, starting January 20—Americans ‘being ripped off’

United States President Donald Trump on 10 January (IST) called for a one-year cap on credit card interest rates of 10% from January 20, marking a year since he began his second term in the post.

This also completes one of Donald Trump's key campaign promises in the run-up to the US Presidential elections in late 2024. He had received criticism for not fulfilling the campaign pledge for most of his first term.

American public no longer allowed to be ripped off, says Donald Trump

“Effective January 20, 2026, I, as President of the United States, am calling for a one-year cap on Credit Card Interest Rates of 10%. Coincidentally, the January 20th date will coincide with the one-year anniversary of the historic and very successful Trump Administration,” Donald Trump said wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.

While he did not give out specifics, Donald Trump said the move is aimed at improving “affordability” for Americans, stating: “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%, and even more…”

What did Donald Trump say? Read full text below:

In his post Donald Trump also blamed predecessor “Sleepy Joe” Biden for letting “credit card interest rates of 20 to 30%, and even more, which festered unimpeded” during the previous administration.

Reactions to Donald Trump's announcements

On microblogging site X (formerly Twitter), the official account reposted the US president's Truth post as a graphic with no additional information but called it “HUGE”. Reuters said it reached out to The White House for details on Donald Trump's announcement, but there was no immediate response.

The agency added that there was no immediate response from major American banks and credit card issuers either including, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One Financial Corp, Citigroup and JPMorgan.

Meanwhile billionaire investor and big-time Donald Trump proponent Bill Ackman has come out on X, to criticize the US president on this move, calling it a “mistake”.

He wrote: “This is a mistake President Donald Trump. Without being able to charge rates adequate enough to cover losses and to earn an adequate return on equity, credit card lenders will cancel cards for millions of consumers who will have to turn to loan sharks for credit at rates higher than and on terms inferior to what they previously paid.”

He added that he saw “innovation”, “competition” and “regulatory changes” as the possible alternative solutions. “In order to bring down credit card rates, we need more innovation and competition among credit card lenders. Regulatory changes that enable new entrants could lead to a reduction in rates,” he added.

US credit card interest rate cap: What was proposed earlier?

• Over the years, partisan concerns have been raised over high credit card interest rates by US lawmakers in Congress, but the proposals are yet to take shape as laws, the Reuters report noted.
• Among those who made proposals include Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders and Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who introduced a bipartisan legislation capping credit card interest rates at 10% for five years, it added.
• In 2025, the Trump administration discarded a Biden era decision to scrap a credit card late fee rule which capped such charges at $8, as per the report.
• The Trump administration said it agreed with businesses that the decision was illegal, and a federal judge also later ruled in favour of the opposition.

(With inputs from Reuters)