INDIANAPOLIS – The holiday shopping season is often a time when Americans spend extra money outside their budget and run up credit card balances.
As we enter the 2024 holiday shopping season, Americans are already dealing with the highest household debt ever recorded. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York just released its latest report on American household debt, which shows total household debt rose in the 3rd quarter by $147 billion to a new record $17.94 trillion. That represents a 0.8% increase from the 2nd quarter.
And as many families struggle to budget around inflation over the last few years, credit card debt went up by $24 billion to a total $1.17 trillion. That’s also an all-time high and an 8% increase from one year ago.
Aside from those totals, it’s also important to note the delinquency rates included in the report. Those results were mixed in this report.
Overall debt delinquency rates went up from 3.2% to 3.5%. That includes all debt like mortgages, auto loans and others. However, there was a sliver of good news in the credit card delinquency rate: credit card delinquencies went down from 9.1% to 8.8%.
In general, that would indicate Americans are doing a slightly better job of keeping up with those monthly credit card payments, even as overall balances are going up.
Another positive sign the report is found in the number of bankruptcies, which went down slightly in the 3rd quarter. At the same time, the amount of money being sent to collections reached a new record.
“The percentage of consumers with a third-party collection account on their credit report remained relatively stable at 4.6 percent,” the report states. “But the average balance of those collections rose to an all-time high of $1,705.”
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