How higher Fed rates stand to affect Americans’ finances

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER
AP Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Record-low mortgages below 3% are long gone. Credit card rates will likely rise. So will the cost of an auto loan. Savers may finally receive a yield high enough to top inflation. The half-point hike in its benchmark short-term rate that the Federal Reserve announced Wednesday won’t, by itself, have much immediate effect on most Americans. But additional large hikes are expected to be announced in June and July, and economists foresee the fastest pace of rate increases since 1989. The result could be much higher borrowing costs for households well into the future as the Fed fights the most painfully high inflation in four decades.