Preview Issue #0
Sample issue — this is what lands in your inbox. This is a sample of the letter's format, built on a real, already-past decision so you can see exactly how it works. Issue #1 covers the October 28 decision, live.
Issue #0 · Original event date: September 16, 2026 — the Fed's quarter-point hike, translated at the time. The figures below are that decision's figures, frozen with the issue. For where rates stand now, see Rates & You, refreshed after every decision.
Subject: The Fed hiked. Your credit card finds out in about a month.
01 · What just happened
On September 16, the Federal Reserve raised its target rate by a quarter point — to 3.75–4.00% — its first hike since 2023, and all twelve voters agreed. The Fed doesn't set your credit card APR. But it sets the rate your APR is glued to: the prime rate, which climbed from 6.75% to 7.00% the next business day. Everything priced as "prime plus a markup" — most credit cards, most HELOCs — just got a quarter point more expensive. On a schedule. Here it is.
02 · How it reaches your wallet
| What you have | How it connects | When it hits |
|---|---|---|
| Credit card | APR = prime + your markup | New rate in about one billing cycle |
| HELOC | Also priced off prime | Payment moves in about a month |
| Savings account | Banks pass hikes along… slowly | Typically 1–4 weeks — they drag their feet |
| Fixed-rate mortgage | Doesn't use prime at all | Immune. It follows bond yields — a different channel |
03 · Show me the math
Meet a hypothetical card: a $6,400 balance at prime + 16.99%.
Before September 16, that APR was 23.74%. A balance that just sits there costs about $127 a month in interest. After the hike rolls through — about one billing cycle, so call it the October statement — the APR is 23.99%. Same balance: about $128 a month.
The damage from this hike: $1.33 a month. Sixteen dollars a year. Four cents a day.
That's the honest version, and it's the whole point of this letter: one hike is a rounding error next to the balance itself. But hikes travel in packs. Three quarter-point hikes — prime at 7.50%, this card at 24.49% — would add $48 a year to the same untouched balance. The rate is weather. The balance is climate.
Hypothetical balance; real rates. Illustrative math — your issuer charges interest on your average daily balance, so your statement will differ slightly. Direction and scale won't.
Meanwhile, in money…
Twelve people who are paid to disagree — arguing about the economy is literally their job — voted 12–0 on September 16. Twelve economists, one opinion. It's the closest thing to a Washington miracle you'll see this year.
04 · What to watch next
Wednesday, October 28: the Fed decides again, and after a unanimous hike the market honestly can't call it — hold and hike are both live. Then December 8–9 brings the dot plot, the Fed's own map of where it thinks rates go next. When the decision lands, this letter lands with it — same afternoon, new numbers, same translation.
05 · Run your own numbers
Your balance isn't $6,400 and your markup isn't 16.99%. Run your actual numbers — what the hike does to your card, your HELOC, and your savings, all in one place:
The Pass-Through is a Figmetric letter. Educational only — this is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Real issues are sent only when financial news changes the numbers that matter. No weekly filler. Unsubscribe anytime.
Money news breaks. Your money finds out weeks later.
The Pass-Through translates the money news — Fed decisions, inflation reports, new tax brackets, Social Security changes — into what happens to your paycheck, your card APR, your HELOC, and your savings, and the dates it hits. Free. Only when there's real news. No advice, just the math.
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Published: October 15, 2026 · Issue #0 (sample)