For some reason, Americans appear to have a love affair with credit cards. We as a society seem to just love racking up debt to big banks, sending our money back to them with loads of interest on top, then having the nerve to complain about how we don’t have enough money at the end of the month.
A new report from the Federal Reserve states that as of December 2018, total credit card debt in America amounted to a staggering $870 billion. That’s billion with a B, folks!
The total amount of credit card debt previously peaked in 2008 in conjunction with the Great Recession but had declined for a couple of years. However, since the Recession has largely made its way out from our economy, and things have been growing at a faster pace for the past three or so years, it appears that Americans have not learned their lesson. Not only have we gone back to our old habits, but we are carrying out those bad habits to even worse degrees now.
Bloomberg notes that there are now over 480 million credit cards in circulation. That’s nearly 150 million more credit cards than people, and 100 million more than were in circulation in 2008.
At the end of last year, credit cards were the fourth-largest portion of consumer debt in the U.S. after mortgage, student loan and auto debt. But the quarterly increase in credit card debt was faster than the other categories. Overall debt reached a record $13.5 trillion.
About 37 million credit card accounts had a 90+ days delinquent mark added to their credit report last quarter, an increase of about two million from the fourth quarter of 2017. These 37 million accounts hold roughly $68 billion in debt that is 90-plus days delinquent.
The good news? Well, there is still plenty of space for you to borrow money and make the bankers even wealthier.
more http://coachconnell.com/2019/03/06/credit-card-debt-staggering-record/
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