Credit Card Debt of Americans Now Totals $1.32 Trillion: Report

Although credit debt has gone up, the amount of money saved has significantly improved over the past 20 years.

Dollar bills and credit and debit cards in Washington on Oct. 4, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Consumers added $28 billion in credit card debt during the second quarter of 2025, to bring the total debt to approximately $1.32 trillion, according to a Sept. 8 report from finance website WalletHub.

Not accounting for inflation, the latest numbers, as of July, set a new record, 3 percent higher than the same month in 2024. When calculating for the quarter, outstanding credit card debt for the second quarter was 2 percent below the all-time record.

The average American household debt has also gone up.

According to the New York Federal Reserve Bank, total household debt increased by $185 billion to hit $18.39 trillion in the second quarter.

“This quarter’s flow of household debt into serious delinquency was mixed across debt types, with credit card and auto loans holding steady, student loans continuing to rise, and mortgages edging up slightly,” Joelle Scally, economic policy adviser at the New York Fed, said in a statement last month.

Based on WalletHub’s data, the average household credit card balance at the end of the second quarter was $10,935, hitting a new high.

Although credit card debt has gone up, the amount of money saved or invested in assets has significantly improved over the past 20 years.

The ratio between total credit card debt and deposits was 7.3 percent in the second quarter. It was at 18.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2000, around 60 percent less.

“The lower this ratio is, the better,” according to the WalletHub report. The number was slightly better in the first quarter of 2021, when it was at 5.3 percent.

Similarly, the ratio between total credit card debt and assets was 0.68 percent in the second quarter, a 51 percent decline from the peak registered in the fourth quarter of 2002 at 1.38 percent.

States With High Credit Card Debt

Credit cardholders in New Jersey have the highest average credit card debt of any state, according to a Sept. 9 report from LendingTree. Mississippi residents have the lowest.

New Jersey residents had around $9,382 in average credit card debt in the first quarter, an increase of 8.1 percent from the same time last year.

Following New Jersey, Maryland had around $9,252 in debt. Then comes Connecticut with $9,201, Massachusetts with $9,165, and California with $9,096 to round out the top five.

Georgia had the fastest-growing card debt, registering a 20.5 percent growth from 2024, while Louisiana saw the largest year-over-year decrease.

The annual percentage rate for all credit cards in the second quarter was 21.16 percent, and for cards accruing interest, it was 22.25 percent. For new credit card offers, the current average is 24.36 percent, according to LendingTree.

The credit card delinquency rate was getting better after recently peaking in the second quarter of 2024, at 3.23 percent, according to Fed data. Since then, the next three quarters registered a decline, but the rate stayed the same for the most recent quarter at 3.05 percent.

The 12-month inflation in the United States had gone up in August, with the consumer price index registering an increase of 2.9 percent.

The University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index, indicating optimism about the country’s economy, declined to 55.4 in September, a 21 percent decrease from last year.

“Only about 24 percent of consumers expect to spend as usual in the year ahead on items that have large price increases,” said Joanne Hsu, the survey’s director.

“The remaining consumers report that they would reduce their spending on such items, either by cutting back or stopping their spending on such items altogether.

“Across political affiliation, a clear majority of each political group anticipates reducing their spending on items that experience inflation.

“Still, partisan differences are visible; Republicans are less likely to expect reducing their spending than independents or Democrats. These patterns are consistent with historical patterns in which consumers tend to hold more favorable economic views when their party is in the White House.”