Credit card debt is on the rise.<\/p>\n
Americans now owe a record $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The average balance per consumer stands at $6,329, up 4.8% year over year, according to a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion.<\/p>\n
Credit card delinquency rates are also higher across the board, the New York Fed and TransUnion found. Over the last year, roughly 9.1% of credit card balances transitioned into delinquency, the New York Fed reported.<\/p>\n
Borrowers with revolving debt \u201care maxing out their credit cards,\u201d said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion, \u201cthat\u2019s usually a pretty good indicator that people are stretched.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCredit card balances briefly fell in 2020 and early 2021 due to pandemic-related factors,\u201d said Ted Rossman, Bankrate\u2019s senior industry analyst, which included government-supplied stimulus checks and fewer opportunities for spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut since early 2021, credit card balances have rocketed upward by 48%, fueled by a post-pandemic boom in services spending as well as high inflation and high interest rates,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Consumers have showed a remarkable willingness to splurge on travel and entertainment, a recent report by Bankrate also shows, to recapture the experiences they lost during the Covid years.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe people can reassess that now,\u201d Raneri said.<\/p>\n
The surge in \u201crevenge spending\u201d has now lasted several years, she added. \u201cMaybe there is a way to position it that they can check off some of the things that they feel like they missed and get back to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Credit cards are one of the most expensive ways to borrow money. The average credit card charges more than 20% \u2014 near an all-time high.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith credit card balances at an all-time high and the average credit card rate hovering near record territory, it\u2019s more important than ever to pay down this debt as soon as possible,\u201d Rossman said.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re carrying a balance, try consolidating and paying off high-interest credit cards with a lower interest personal loan or switch to an interest-free balance transfer credit card, he advised.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Credit card debt is on the rise. Americans now owe a record $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday. The average balance per consumer stands at $6,329, up 4.8% year over year, according to a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion. Credit card delinquency rates are also higher across the board, the New <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6094,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}