Interesting Facts about Credit Card Debt
Facts about Credit Card Debt
Do you know how much credit card debt the average American has? We hear all that time that the average American has over $8,000 in credit card debt. That is an unbelievable high number. Is it a true statistic?
The majority of American people and families don’t owe anything to credit card companies. The majority of American households carry a balance that is less than $2,000. So, do you want to hear the real statistic? One in twenty American households owes more than $8,000 in credit card debt.
Where did this high statistic come from? Most of the information stating that the average American family owes more than $8,000 on credit cards comes from CardWeb.com. This company tracks credit card trends. CardWeb’s statistics prove that ‘the average debt per American household with at least one credit card was $8,940 in 2002.’
Here’s how CardWeb got that number. It took the total amount of outstanding credit card debt at the end of 2002, $750.9 billion. This number was divided by the number of American households that have at least one credit card, 84 million.
Basically, the people with huge amounts of credit card debt ruin the statistic for everyone else. While my husband and I never carry a credit card balance, we know of at least 5 other families that have at least $20 thousand in credit card debt. Let’s look at a few more statistics.
- 23.8 percent of American households do not have a credit card. This includes bank cards, retail cards, cash back credit cards, etc.
- 31.2 percent of American households pay off their credit card balances in full.
- This means that 55 percent of American households do not owe anything on credit cards.
- According to IRS statistics, the average amount of credit card debt among Americans that do carry a credit card balance is only $1,900.
The Federal Government recently conducted a study on credit card debt. Here’s what the Fed found…
- 29 percent of American households owe more than $1,000 on credit cards.
- 21 percent owe more than $2,000.
- 6 percent owe more than $8,000.
- 4 percent owe more than $10,500.
- 1 percent owe more than $21,400.
Fair Issac also recently released credit card statistics.
- A little more than 1 in 8 people use 80 percent of more of their credit card limit.
- Over 50 percent of everyone who has a credit card uses less than 30 percent of their total credit card limit.
- Approximately 48 percent of people with credit cards owe less than $1,000.
- About 10 percent of credit card holders have a credit card balance more than $10,000.
As you can see, credit card statistics vary a great deal. It is safe to say, however, that credit cards are definitely being used in the American society today. Credit cards have been a heaven-send for some people and a crippling tool for others.
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