Before you read the numbers.
The filing discloses a promotional rate alongside the ongoing rate. The figure shown here is the go-to rate that applies once the promotional period ends, because that is the rate that governs for the life of the account.
The purchase rate was read from a row the document did not label explicitly, so it carries more uncertainty than the other figures here.
Disclosed rates and fees
Every figure below was read from this issuer's filed agreement. Anything the filing does not state is left out of this table rather than shown as zero.
| Purchase APR | 18.24%–27.36% |
|---|---|
| Introductory APR | 0% for 15 months |
| Balance transfer APR | 18.24% |
| Cash advance APR | 28.89% |
| Annual fee | $0 |
| Late payment fee | up to $40 |
| Cash advance fee | Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each |
| Balance transfer fee | Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater for each |
Analysis
Ultimate Card Agreement 20260102, as filed by Santander Bank, carries a purchase APR of 18.24%–27.36%, no annual fee and a 15-month 0% opening period. The purchase rate sits at roughly the 66th percentile of the 4,587 agreements indexed here.
What the document actually states
This page covers the agreement Santander Bank filed for Ultimate Card Agreement 20260102. The filing runs ten pages.
On the record here: a purchase rate, a cash advance rate, a balance transfer rate, an annual fee line and a late payment maximum. It is silent on a penalty rate, a foreign transaction fee and a grace period.
Note that the purchase APR row in this table carries no explicit label in the filing, which introduces some ambiguity about what it covers.
The interest-free window
This agreement opens at 0% for 15 months, the only period in the document where carrying a balance is free.
Zero-percent openings appear in roughly 458 of the filings on this site, which puts this agreement in a sizeable minority rather than a class of its own.
The go-to rate is 27.36%. Any balance still outstanding when the promotion lapses starts accruing at that figure — about $786 a year on $2,500.
Valued honestly, 15 months at zero on $2,500 avoids about $983 of interest compared with the go-to rate — the whole of what the promotion delivers.
The purchase rate in context
Purchases price between 18.24% and 27.36% under this filing. The 9.12-point gap between the two is material, and nothing in the agreement indicates where a given account would land.
The floor of that band sits at about the 57th percentile of filed purchase rates; the ceiling sits at about the 66th. In corpus terms the same card can be cheap or expensive depending on how it is priced.
The rate discussed in this section is the go-to rate — the one that applies once the promotional period described below has ended, not the promotional rate itself.
What a balance actually costs
At the disclosed purchase APR, $4,000 revolving for a full year costs something like $1,258 in interest.
On a median-priced agreement from this index (21.99%) the same $4,000 would run about $983 a year, so this card costs in the region of $275 more annually for the identical balance.
Per statement cycle that is on the order of $90.94 on $4,000, which is the number that actually shows up on a bill.
These figures are arithmetic on the disclosed rate, not a quote: they assume the balance is never reduced, ignore any payments, and take no account of fees charged separately.
What the card costs before you borrow
No annual fee appears in the filing, in line with the roughly 75% of disclosing agreements in this index that charge nothing to hold the card.
Taking cash against the card means a cash advance fee of $10 or 5% of the advance, whichever is greater and a cash advance APR of 28.89%. Cash is therefore 1.53 points dearer than buying something with the card. $200 is the crossover point where the percentage overtakes the $10 minimum. The grace period described below generally does not extend to cash advances, so interest on them usually begins immediately.
Moving a balance onto this card carries an up-front charge of $10 or 5% of the amount transferred, whichever is greater, with the transferred balance priced at 18.24%. Shifting $5,000 across attracts something like $250 in fees on day one.
Penalty pricing and late fees
$40 is the disclosed ceiling on a late payment fee, placing it near the 72nd percentile of the set.
The limits of this document
Absent from the captured terms: a foreign transaction fee, a grace period and penalty pricing. The original document is the place to look for any of these.
What this analysis can address is bounded by the filing: rates, fees and the terms around them. Everything a card issuer might advertise — rewards, benefits, bonuses, who qualifies — falls outside the document and outside this review.
Go to the source
This summary stands or falls on the linked PDF — ten pages. Agreements are amended over time, and the filing reflects the terms as submitted rather than as they stand today.
In short
At 27.36% the purchase rate is close to ordinary for this corpus; nothing in the rate table sets this filing far apart from its peers.
The source document
This page is a reading of one document: the cardholder agreement Santander Bank filed with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Where the two disagree, the filing is correct and this page is wrong.
Applications are handled by Santander Bank, not by us. We do not take applications and cannot say whether you would be approved.
Other cards from Santander Bank
This is the only agreement from Santander Bank in the database with enough disclosed terms to publish. See the issuer's full filing list.
Where this card sits
Groups this agreement qualifies for, by its own disclosed terms:
Comparable cards from other issuers
Closest disclosed purchase APR among cards in the same groups.