This is part two to a series on credit cards and where our country is heading when it comes to credit card debt. In the previous post in this series we talked about some of the statistics in the credit industry and how to interpret them to get an idea of where we stand financially.
Let's look at some more of these numbers now.
Only 29 percent of households owe $1,000 or more dollars on their credit cards. Approximately 21 percent owe $2,000 dollars or more, 6 percent owe $8,000 dollars or more, 4 percent owe $10,500 or more, and only 1 percent of households in the United States owes $21,400 or more. These statistics, which are from the Fed pretty much go with what Fair Isaac, the company behind the FICO credit score discovered upon reviewing millions of credit reports in the United States.
There are, however, a few differences between the universe that the Fed looked at to arrive at the figures above, and what Fair Isaac analyzed. For example, the credit reports are individual because there is no such thing as a joint or household credit report. Also, to have and use a credit report you have to have and use credit. Finally, credit reports do not distinguish between revolving balances and those that you pay off every month.
Statistics from Fair Isaacs have shown us a world where most people are lightly or moderately using credit. Approximately 48 percent of all credit card owners owe a total of less than $1,000 dollars, and approximately 10 percent of card holders hold balance totals that are in excess of $10,000. More than half of all of the people who hold credit cards are using less than 30 percent of their limit, with only approximately 1 in 8 people using 80 percent or more of their credit card limit at any one time.
There is plenty of credit card trouble out there right now. It may not mean that all the hand-wringing over consumer debt is really what it's cracked up to be, though. While a good amount of Americans seem to be avoiding the credit card track all together, however, there are still a number of people sitting right on the financial edge. For example, more than a third of those who owe more than $10,000 dollars in credit card debt have household incomes of less than $50,000. 13 percent who owe that much on their credit cards have incomes under $30,000. The percentage of disposable income that is used to pay debts is still in its record highs. Bankruptcies also set another record recently. In 2003 there were 1.6 million personal filings alone, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute.
So while the average American seems to be doing just fine, there is plenty of evidence that suggests that a staggering number of people are overdosing on their credit card debt.
Photo Credits: 1
Originally posted 2009-02-12 05:08:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Posts -
How to use Debt to Improve Your Credit Many of us have the wrong idea when it comes to debt. After years of being told that it is a bad thing and should be avoided, most of us never want to get into the problem of having to deal with debt. Millions more are in over their heads...... -
Where Do Small Businesses Go Now? Credit and money are still in really tight places, and this is absolutely no secret. What is unknown in the current economy is what small businesses should do and where they should go now. Many small businesses are finding themselves struggling and even drowning in an attempt to overcome the...... -
Is Consolidation Always the Answer? One of the most important things that you can come to understand regarding your debt and the concept of debt consolidation is this: You absolutely cannot borrow your way out of debt, in order to solve all of your problems. More than 80 percent of all individuals that managed to...... -
Get Rid Of Your Credit Card Debts Credit card debt consolidation is a quite effective option of eliminating your credit card debts. Getting into credit card debt is really harmful for your credit score. It is even worse if you let it accumulate. At present, an average American household carries credit card debts of over $8,000 which...... -
Ruin Your Credit Fast, pt 2 Granted, there are a wide variety of different ways that you can ruin your credit over time, but do you want to know what the quickest and most dangerous ways are? Here are five ways that you can quickly and effectively destroy your credit. Continued from Part 1 By taking......
Related Websites -
Eliminating Credit Card Debt For Dummies There are many different types of debt, some good, most bad. Credit card debt is decidedly in the "bad debt" territory, just behind payday loans and title loans. Approximately 73% of all American households possess a credit card, with the average credit card debt of households with at least one...... -
Some Interesting Facts About Credit Card Debt In The United States. This month's Mother Jones magazine has some...um...interesting facts about credit card and debt here in the United States. We all know that debt is piling up faster and faster in our society, but did you know that: In 1970 only 51% of people had credit cards and today 93% do...and...... - Eliminate Credit Card Debt Have you recently decided to eliminate credit card debt from your personal finances? Although it may seem like a lofty idea, you should know that it is definitely an achievable goal. You just have to come up with a game plan to will get you where you want to go.......
- [Revisited] You're Embarrassed by Your Credit Card Debt This morning you read about the commissioned study from CreditCards.com and hopefully you went to read the article from Yahoo! Finance. If you didn't then you should now. We aren't going to analyze the results this time and instead analyze the analysis. Surely you've read about how the media......
- What's The Average Credit Card Debt In America? The stereotypical image of the American consumer portrayed by the media is that of a family with a jumbo mortgage and drowning in consumer debt. But is that the reality? Americans certainly devote a far larger percentage of their income to mortgage payments than is wise, but the average credit......
Categories:
Debt, Money, Personal Finance, credit cards, economy
Tags:
0 comments ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment