Credit Card Debt

Consumer Debt Statistics

Most Americans are unaware of how much debt the nation is consumed in. The following debt statistics should give everyone a wakeup call on how easy it is to fall behind on their monthly payments and into credit card debt.

• The average American with a credit file is responsible for $16,635 in debt, excluding mortgages, according to Experian Credit Reporting Bureau.
• Total U.S. consumer debt (which includes credit card debt and non-credit card debt but not mortgage debt) reached $2.43 trillion as of May 2011. (Source: Federal Reserve's G.19 report on consumer credit, July 2011)
• Total U.S. consumer revolving debt reached $793.1 billion as of May 2011. About 98 percent of that debt was credit card debt. (Source: Federal Reserve's G.19 report on consumer credit, July 2011)
• Of the households that do owe money on credit cards, the median balance was $3,389 -- meaning half owe more, half less. (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
• National average credit card debt per household is $15,799. (Source: Federal Reserve's report on consumer credit, July 2011)
• About 40 percent of credit cardholders carry a balance of less than $1,000. About 15 percent are far less conservative in their use of credit cards and have total card balances in excess of $10,000. When you look at the total of all credit obligations combined (except mortgage loans), 48 percent of consumers carry less than $5,000 of debt. This includes all credit cards, lines of credit and loans -- everything but mortgages. Nearly 37 percent carry more than $10,000 of nonmortgage debt as reported to the credit bureaus. (Source: myfico.com)
• The typical consumer has access to approximately $19,000 on all credit cards combined. More than half of all people with credit cards are using less than 30 percent of their total credit card limit. Just over one in seven consumers are using 80 percent or more of their credit card limit. (Source: myfico.com)
• More than 90 percent of survey respondents believe they had the same amount -- or less -- debt as the average American. (Source: CreditCards.com survey, June 2007)
• 28 percent of those surveyed say their ability to pay off their credit card balance has become more difficult. (Source: Javelin Strategy & Research, "Credit Card Issuer Profitability in a Difficult Economy," July 2008)
• In 2007, before the recession began, 14.7 percent of U.S. families had debt exceeding 40 percent of their income. (Source: U.S. Congress' Joint Economic Committee, "Vicious Cycle: How Unfair Credit Card Company Practices Are Squeezing Consumers and Undermining the Recovery," May 2009)

Consumer Debt and the Future

We’re passing on this legacy to our youth. As young adults enter the “real” world, they’re falling into the same debt trap as their parents, accruing large amounts of credit card debt to pay for college and other related expenses. Here are the statistics on how consumer debt is affecting our youth:

• Undergraduates are carrying record-high credit card balances. Undergraduate students average (mean) credit card balances grew to $3,173, the highest in the years the study has been conducted. Median debt grew from 2004’s $946 to $1,645. Twenty-one percent of undergraduates had balances of between $3,000 and $7,000, also up from the last study. (Source: Sallie Mae, "How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards," April 2009)
• 84 percent of undergraduates have credit cards, and the average undergrad has $2,200 in credit card debt. Additionally, they will amass almost $20,000 in student debt. (Source: Sallie Mae, "How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards," April 2009)
• 41 percent of cardholders from the ages of 18 to 29 made only the minimum required payment on a credit card over the past year. (Source: FINRA Investor Education Foundation, "Financial Capability in the United States," December 2009)
• The average college graduate has nearly $20,000 in debt; average credit card debt has increased 47 percent between 1989 and 2004 for 25-to 34-year-olds and 11 percent for 18-to 24-year olds. Nearly one in five 18-to 24-year-olds is in "debt hardship," up from 12 percent in 1989. (Source: Demos.org, "The Economic State of Young America," May 2008)

Have these consumer debt statistics shocked you? Do you want to make a change in your personal finances and stop depending on credit cards? Call 1-800-320-9929 to speak with a certified credit counselor at Consolidated Credit Counseling Services. We can look at your budget and advise you on the best way to get out of credit card debt. Don’t become a statistic. Start on the path to living debt free!

Source: Creditcards.com