As the Easter sales begin shoppers will be pulling their credit cards out of their wallets and purses to buy some of the discounted goods on offer.
However, if the credit card bill is not paid off in full and on time, almost usurious interest rates come into play.
Canstar New Zealand, which releases a weekly update of interest rates from banks and financial institutions, said although there was a reduction in the Reserve Bank's official cash rate, there was no movement in credit card interest rates, which remained stubbornly high.
On the other hand, home loans had immediate rate movements across both fixed and floating rates with more expected during the next few weeks.
Canstar New Zealand general manager Jose George told the Otago Daily Times credit cards were effectively an unsecured loan so they were largely unrelated to the OCR.
"What you're paying for in a credit card interest rate is the risk premium attached to being an unsecured loan, as well as the cost of providing any rewards programme attached. These two things are unrelated to the cash rate.''
There was still plenty of choice for consumers, he said.
At present on Canstar's database, the minimum ongoing credit card interest rate was 5.79% if the person had a loan with the BNZ, or otherwise 12.69%.
The highest rate was 25.45%.
"If you are someone who pays off your credit card in full each month, the interest rate is irrelevant. But if you have an ongoing debt you should be assessing your credit card options and minimising the amount of interest you pay,'' Mr George said.
A Westpac spokesman said there were several factors taken into consideration when setting an interest rate.
One of those was the cost of funds of which the OCR was a part, but not the main factor.
Other considerations included chargeback, general provisioning for bad debts - given credit cards were unsecured - collection and security.
An ASB spokeswoman said the interest rate on credit cards reflected a higher level of risk.
Other factors included the cost of funds to the bank and losses as a result of customer defaults and fraudulent transactions.
"There are other costs that are involved in providing credit cards to customers and ASB's interest rates are constantly under review.''
ASB offered a range of credit cards including a low rate option and customers could choose the card that best suited their needs.
