Only half of America’s credit card customers believe they can pay off their December balance in full.
- If credit card confidence is slipping, many other industry metrics are moving in the opposite direction.
- The national credit card balance stands at $1.08 trillion, a record high.
- The average interest rate has reached 21%, the highest point recorded by the Federal Reserve in nearly three decades of tracking.
Credit card debt is rising faster than any other major category of household debt: “I think all this adds up to more people carrying more debt for longer periods of time, and unfortunately, I don’t see any of that reversing any time soon,” said Ted Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate.