Purchase volume on consumer credit cards increased to $3.6 trillion in 2024, up from $3.2 trillion two years prior, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s recently released report on the credit card market.
The CFPB is required by law to prepare a report on the credit card market every two years. The most recent report analyzed data from 2024 and found that annual growth in credit card spending was around 5%. Nearly all that growth was attributable to cardholders with credit scores in the range of 720 to 799.
Credit card balances exceeded $1.2 trillion in 2024, according to the report. Annual growth in credit card balances was about 6% at the end of 2024, closer to pre-pandemic levels, after having reached 17% in the first quarter of 2022. The CFPB also found that credit card delinquencies and charge-offs reached historically high levels in early 2024 but have since fallen to pre-pandemic levels. By year’s end, delinquency rates for both general-purpose and private-label cards were 3% and 3.8%, respectively.
Cash back credit cards now make up the leading share of all general purpose accounts. Also, in 2024, cardholders disputed $9.8 billion in credit card charges, resulting in $5.9 billion in chargebacks.
