Reasons to avoid store cards

And more of the week's best financial insight

A woman with a credit card.
(Image credit: milan2099/Getty Images)

Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web:

The Select Seven are suffering

A mortgage-rate reprieve

Mortgage rates suddenly plunged last week by the biggest week-over-week decline since 1981, said Gabriella Cruz-Martinez in Yahoo Finance. "The rate of the average 30-year fixed mortgage fell to 6.61 percent from 7.08 percent the week prior, according to Freddie Mac," following a sharp decline in Treasury yields after October's inflation report came in better than expected. Lenders typically follow the direction of the 10-year Treasury yield when assigning mortgage rates. The sudden drop sent homebuyers racing to lock in lower rates, "boosting activity in the otherwise sluggish housing market." The volume of applications has fallen by 46 percent from a year ago, "when rates were at 3.10 percent." But one agent said her client's preapproved mortgage budget went from $430,000 to $490,000 in a single day.

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Reasons to avoid store cards

Don't be fooled by the 10-percent-off-your-purchase pitch, said Alexis Leondis in Bloomberg: Store credit cards often end up costing you more. With holiday sticker shock this season, an upfront discount for signing up for a retail-branded card is an especially tempting offer. But there are some things to consider. In addition to a higher interest rate (26.72 percent) than general credit cards, and no cash back or travel rewards, retail cards also "do something sneaky." It's called deferred interest, and it means "if a shopper doesn't pay off the balance within the promotional window" (say, 6 months), interest gets assessed "retroactively from the purchase date." Unless you are shopping constantly at certain retailers "and are able to pay off the balance in full," it's probably not worth it.

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