Wow just wow!

[sahd2one]

According to Cardweb in 2007, the average American carries $9,200 in credit card debt.

61% of those roll the balance from month to month and only pay the minimum payment!

 

[ChrizJen]

I believe that. Credit cards are dangerous for folks who live paycheck to paycheck. And with the economy the way it is, and with fewer and fewer cost of living raises, there are many more people living paycheck to paycheck and having to depend on credit cards just to pay the bills. It's a viscious cycle that's difficult to break.

 

[jenny105]

Not very surprising to me. The PP is right.

 

[C.Ann]

I'm not the least bit surprised.. The sampling of people here on the DIS who pay their credit cards in full each month are definitely in the minority.. The majority carries a balance on several credit cards and the end result is the things that you see happening right now..

 

[lttlmc3]

I'm not surprised either. They've just made it so easy to borrow, no wonder the economy sucks.

 

[chucknorris]

Chuck Norris can max out a credit card with no limit.

 

[sahd2one]

I think this is the real credit crisis that is going to hit the economy in the next few months no matter who is in office.

 

[Quiksilvr]

I think this is the real credit crisis that is going to hit the economy in the next few months no matter who is in office.

I don't know that this is true. I've read several reports that state US credit card debt is a drop in the bucket compared to the outstanding mortgages. Further home devaluation and mortgage delinquencies will impact the economy far more than credit card delinquencies.

That said, I think that the "real" crisis that will occur with respect to credit cards is that credit card companies will refuse to allow those with high balances to continue to charge on the credit cards. Limits will be reduced, credit lines for risky borrowers will be completely eliminated, etc. This will be a major problem for those "paycheck to paycheck" folks who supplement their income with credit cards. From an economic standpoint, it's probably better to get those risky borrowers off the books than it is to keep them spending (and driving the economy in that way) if the debts will eventually be eaten by the credit card companies anyway.

It's a difficult thing. I have family members who basically lived on credit cards for years before finally admitting to others in the family that they had amassed tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt. For those of us who pay the balance each month, it was shocking to hear. These particular family members weren't even out living large; they were just trying to survive on small incomes. I don't know what the answer is.

 

[Charade]

The devil is in the details.

What are these people spending money on?

 

[Lintasare]

I will admit it...I carry a balance on my CC's. But I always make more than the minimum payment, I keep my charging to a minimum and I am paying down the balances slowly but surely.

 

[kelleigh1]

No surprise to me.

I honestly believe that we need to get credit card companies off of college campuses and that every high school student should be required to take a credit course so they can better understand what they will be getting themselves into with credit card debt.

I just think it's far too easy to get the credit and far too easy to get yourself into a hole with almost no way to get out. And without education on the subject, it just continues to escalate.

 

[sahd2one]

I will admit it...I carry a balance on my CC's. But I always make more than the minimum payment, I keep my charging to a minimum and I am paying down the balances slowly but surely.

You can reduce all of your debt if you stop charging on credit cards eventually.

 

[kydisneyfans]

For every 1 dollar owed on a credit card, there is 13 owed on a mortgage nationwide. I do not recall where that number came from though. (CNBC?)

I went through our open CC accounts earlier this year and found that we have over $120,000 in open credit lines. We get our limits raised without even asking. No wonder it is so easy to go into debt.

The only reason we have CC's is to earn rewards or to get coupons in the mail. They are zeroed out every month.

 

[TruBlu]

I wish my balance was that low.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

I think we (myself included) have really lost a perspective of what is needed vs. wanted and what what we can actually afford vs. what we can just charge

I got myself into a huge black hole of credit card debt in the past 10 years and now my hubby and I are paying it all off. We carry a balance on most cards from month to month but we have really cut down on our spending and we are making by far more than the min. payment each month.

I was actually surprised that the number wasn't higher

 

[ChrizJen]

The devil is in the details.

What are these people spending money on?

I'm sure some are living high on the hog spending money they don't have on frivelous things. But unfortunately as Quicksilvr said, many are probably using them to pay for things like diapers and formula when they cannot afford to pay cash for them. I woudn't want to live that way, but I can certainly see how it could happen. Things are tough for a lot of people right now. And they're only going to get worse.

 

[kelleigh1]

I think we (myself included) have really lost a perspective of what is needed vs. wanted and what what we can actually afford vs. what we can just charge

I got myself into a huge black hole of credit card debt in the past 10 years and now my hubby and I are paying it all off. We carry a balance on most cards from month to month but we have really cut down on our spending and we are making by far more than the min. payment each month.

I was actually surprised that the number wasn't higher

Sounds like our scenario too. It doesn't make us bad people. It doesn't make us dumb. It's just so easy to just pull out the credit card when you see something you want/need.

Sometimes it is need. Like a problem with the car that you can't wait to get fixed because without the car you can't get to work, yet you don't have the cash on hand to pay for it. Bam! $1200 on the credit card. Then the new shoes you bought last week before you realized that you'd need to get the car fixed. The work boots hubby needed for work. The $1000 worth of dental work that the insurance just didn't cover. Etc. It just all adds up that fast.

It's easy to stand back and say "don't carry a balance and you won't have debt." But it has happened and while we're working to pay it off now and trying not to charge anything, sometimes you must - yes, you MUST. Until you walk a day in my shoes, don't try to tell me that I don't have any times when I must charge a purchase.

But we are paying it off. And more than the minimum payment. And we're not booking trips to Disney. We're not out buying stuff we don't need. We're addressing the problem now. Sure, hindsight is 20/20 and we probably could have avoided this, but we are the ones paying for it now. I'm certainly not asking anyone else to cover my debt.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

I'd be thrilled if that's all I owed.

 

[mikehn]

From the title, I thought this thread was gonna be about the sports illustrated models, oh well, carry on.

 

[mumom95]

What is really scary is, I know a lot of people that carry very little to no credit card debt. So when they are figuring out the average, there must be a lot of people with a lot more than $9000 of debt, considering you have a percentage of people with $0.

We put every purchase on credit card , usually totals about $3000 a month, but we pay it off every month, it's just how we do the budget. We get hotel points. This could also skew the numbers. I guess they would take the $3000 from us in the average, but it really isn't debt, it's monthly expenses that get paid off every month.