Bankruptcy & Foreclosures

If you’ve been following along with my debt relief blog posts then you’ve probably already noticed a pattern of pointing the finger of blame at the credit card industry whenever the topic of American financial woes enters the equation. What you may not have known is that the average American household with at least a single credit card has approximately $9000 in credit card debt!

This number is stifling in its own right but I’ve dug up some even more alarming statistics that I believe you’ll find helpful.

Total US consumer debt (which does not include mortgage debt) reached $2.46 Trillion in June 2007, up from $2.398 Trillion at the end of 2006 (Source: Federal Reserve)

Total US consumer revolving debt reached $904 Billion in June 2007, up from $879 billion at the end of 2006 (Source: Federal Reserve)

On average, today’s consumer has a total of 13 credit obligations on record at a credit bureau. These include credit cards (such as department store charge cards, gas cards, or bank cards) and installment loans (auto loans, mortgage loans, student loans, etc.). Not included are savings and checking accounts (typically not reported to a credit bureau). Of these 13 credit obligations, 9 are likely to be credit cards and 4 are likely to be installment loans. (Source: myfico.com)

The typical consumer has access to approximately $19,000 on all credit cards combined. More than half of all people with credit cards are using less than 30% of their total credit card limit. Just over 1 in 7 are using 80% or more of their credit card limit. (Source: myfico.com)

U.S. consumers racked up an estimated $51 billion worth of fast food on their personal credit and debit cards in 2006, compared to $33.2 billion one-year ago. (Source: www.carddata.com)

Nearly 1 in every 3 consumer purchases in the United States is made with a payment card—including credit, debit, and prepaid products. (Source: Visa USA)

Consumers carry more than 1 billion Visa cards worldwide—more than 450 million of those cards are in the United States (Source: Visa USA)

U.S. Visa cardholders alone conduct more than $1 trillion in annual volume (Source: Visa USA)

The bottom line: Credit cards don’t go off and charge themselves! Be smart with your plastic so that you become the exception, not the rule in these alarming statistics.