Though U.S. consumers paid down $50 billion in credit card debt during the first quarter of 2024 (8% more than the first quarter of 2023), credit card debt in the U.S. hit a new record high of $1.27 trillion in May 2024, which is 4% higher than last year adjusting for inflation, according to WalletHub for its recent credit card debt study. The data for the study came from TransUnion, the Federal Reserve and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
With the average credit card annual percentage rate higher than last year, WalletHub projects that credit card debt will increase by more than $120 billion by the end of 2024. According to the study, 46% of Americans are still paying down their credit card balance from last summer. Nearly one in three people said they will have more credit card debt by the end of 2024.
Nearly two out of three people think credit card interest rates above 23% should be illegal—the average interest rate is currently 22.76%. Forty-five percent of Americans charge everyday purchases to credit cards they carry debt on. Nearly one in four U.S. consumers are ”very stressed” about their credit card debt and four out of five people saying that paying their credit card debt is a top priority. Average credit cared debt per household was $10,479 in the first quarter of this year, a 4.3% increase from the same period in 2023.
One of the report’s interesting findings was that nearly three in five people don’t trust artificial intelligence for information about paying off credit card debt.
