28.46% Credit Card Rates Are Crushing Americans

Hey guys, Brian Stevens here with Morning Shots. Listen, I hope everybody had an absolutely fantastic weekend because it's Monday now and it's about to get real with this industry. Because did you know that the average credit card interest rate is 28.46%? That's the average! 28.46%. Man, that's nuts. So, from Forbes, the Federal Reserve keeps tabs on the average interest rate that U.S. consumers pay for a variety of different financial products, credit cards included. In August of 2024, the average credit card interest rate in the United States on accounts with balances that assessed interest was 23.37%, and this is according to the Federal Reserve. That number, my friends, has gone up a whopping 5%. You know, everybody is so fascinated and fixated with holding on to all these threes and fours and sometimes even twos on their first mortgage loans, but those days are gone for people who are carrying a ton of debt. Guys, we are in, I mean, a ton of trouble. See, down below, not this video, but down below, there's a video from Milton Freeman from 1979, and he's discussing inflation. And I implore you to watch that video. It's going to help you with all of your talking points and really understand what's taking place today, because he is speaking about and forecasting exactly where we're at right now, and it's disturbing. So anyways, the average rate, 28.46%, and to boot from the Federal Reserve, we have $4.9 trillion in non-household debt and $12.9 trillion in household debt. Okay, so let's think about this for a second. This one is really easy. 28.46% average rate on cards, $4.9 trillion in outstanding non-household debt, and only $12.9 trillion in household debt, your mortgages. You see, because loan officers, we have about $32 trillion in equity. We could easily refinance those 28.46% average rates on the astonishing $4.9 trillion in non-household debt and knock about 20% interest being paid out right now on nearly $5 trillion. And that would put us on the road to recovery. It really actually would. Cash out refinances, if your client is carrying enough debt, that is. If not, we put them into HELOCs. See, sometimes in chess, we have to sacrifice our queen to checkmate their king. And sometimes we have to sacrifice these rates in the fours on our first mortgages to win our game. Now, it hurts. I get it. Getting rid of your mortgage rate that's in the 3%. But for millions of people across this country, those 3% rates that they're holding onto ultimately are hurting them and hurting their finances. Now, if we don't do this as an industry, we are facing a bankruptcy bonanza and a foreclosure fiasco. And it's right around the corner. Either way, you have to understand something is going to give. And with these numbers, there are loans. I mean, lots and lots of loans out there. But these people, they're not going to come to you. Oftentimes, these clients don't feel like they have an option. Now, from our site, MBS Investing, you are looking right now at the Purchase Mortgage Application Index Weekly. Now, do you notice anything from about 2001 to say like right now? I know. I can tell. I can see that we are not writing enough purchase loans to sustain our current level of loan officers, our current level of loan officers or mortgage companies that exist today. So you can keep telling yourself that you're doing all you can do, that you're reaching out to those who need cash out refinancing in seconds. But those loans, my friends, they're just not getting written. Or we can suffer the consequence of waiting and then our personal businesses, they're going to get hurt. And it makes it even more troublesome when you could actually do something about this if you wanted to. And it's right now and it's right here. Because if you're waiting for more purchase contracts to come in so you can close more loans, don't hold your breath if I just showed you. But either way, you have to understand this something is going to give. So what we've outlined here today is really pretty simple. It's the problem, which is our debt and the rates and the solution, which is you and refinancing people at a better rates or getting them second mortgages. It's a conflict resolution type of situation, which, by the way, pays you and pays you handsomely. Now, do not, I repeat, do not get all caught up in the idea that you're fixing the problem for some of these people who are carrying a lot of debt right now at historically higher and highly offensive rates. You're not doing that. But what you can do is through refinances and second mortgages. So you can offer some temporary relief, some breathing space for these folks to either get their acts together or double down on gum. But either way, you have to understand you're offering a way out. And by the way, that is exactly what your job description is. So go out there and do it. It ain't coming to you. I hope this helps.