HomeUncategorizedAmericans Owe Nearly $1 Trillion in Credit Card Debt – CNET

Americans Owe Nearly $1 Trillion in Credit Card Debt – CNET

May 31, 2023

Americans Owe Nearly $1 Trillion in Credit Card Debt - CNET

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Americans Owe Nearly $1 Trillion in Credit Card Debt

The average credit card interest rate is now over 20%, the highest on record.

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Dan Avery Writer
Dan is a writer on CNET’s How-To team. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, NBC News, Architectural Digest and elsewhere. He is a crossword junkie and is interested in the intersection of tech and marginalized communities.
Expertise Personal Finance, Government and Policy, Consumer Affairs
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Dan Avery
Giant credit card looming over man on couch

The average credit card interest rate is 20.92%, the highest on record.

Stephen Swintek/Getty Images

Americans are carrying roughly $988 billion in credit card debt, the Federal Reserve reported this month, the highest amount ever. Card debt has increased close to $250 billion since April 2021, according to the agency, when it reached $740 billion.

The average interest rate on existing cards was 20.92% in the first quarter of 2023, according to Wallet Hub, the highest since the Federal Reserve began tracking such information in 1994. 

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For new credit card offers, annual percentage rates averaged 22.15% in the first quarter of 2023, up from 18.32% during the same period last year. 

Nearly half (46 percent) of cardholders are carrying a balance from month to month, Bankrate reported, up from 39 percent a year prior.

Exactly how much the average American has on their credit cards is open to interpretation: According to Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus, the average balance was $5,910 at the end of 2022, a 13.2% increase from a year earlier.

But USA Today puts it at $7,951, based on its analysis of data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the US Census Bureau.

Both figures represent an uptick from the height of the pandemic, as the Federal Reserve has continued adjusting interest rates and consumers are once again spending on vacations and dining out.

Read on: How to Get Out of Credit Card Debt

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