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Americans still reeling under credit card debt

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Despite recession being a thing of the past, many Americans are still faced with the problem of huge credit card debts with no way to repay the dues. The unemployment rate which is still relatively high is just adding to their woes.

As per reports from Equifax, the state of California occupies the first place with the total credit card debt amounting to over $90 billion. Texas and Florida occupy the second and third place with debts amounting to $48.8 billion and $47.6 billion respectively. With a total debt of $29 billion, Ohio stood fourth in the list. North Carolina with close to $25 billion and Washington with nearly $18 billion occupied the fifth and sixth place respectively. While consumers are indeed making efforts to reduce their credit card dues, in most cases, the amount being repaid each month is close to 17 percent of the total income being earned by them monthly.

Dianne Bernez, the SVP for Corporate Communication at Equifax, told that despite these debt woes, the good news is that the rate of defaults is falling on a month on month basis. This clearly indicates that despite high debts, they are shirking their responsibility.

Another silver lining is the fact is that the overall debt in America, including credit cards, loans and mortgages, has fallen by slightly over 8% as compared to the all time high in 2008 when it accounted for $11.5 trillion. In the present day, close to 54 million households in America owe more than $800 billion to credit card lenders.