The average American consumer now has $6,194 in credit card debt, according to Experian. This is up from $6,040 in 2018.
As of November 2019, the average credit card APR was 14.87%, according to Federal Reserve data, but this includes accounts without interest, such as 0% APR introductory rates. If you’re looking only at accounts that are assessed interest, the average APR is a significantly higher 16.88%.
A quick multiplication tells us that the average consumer is paying $1,045.55 annually just for the privilege of owing money to their creditors. That’s over $1,000 that could be used to save for retirement, added to an emergency fund, or used for virtually any purpose that’s more productive to your financial health.
Read more at USA Today.
{Matzav.com}
Even if you try to be careful and watch your spending, an unexpected expense (car repair, home repair, medical bill) can cause you to rely on your credit card, and voila! you are now the proud carrier of debt that you have no way of paying off with your already stretched budget.
The poor get poorer? Indeed, yes we do.
I believe we are all indebted to the credit card companies for enabling us to purchase the things we need. And we should give them credit where credit is due! To the credit card companies who feel they are being falsely maligned, I can only say to them, ‘You got to play the cards you’re dealt. However, if you play your cards right, you will be just fine.’
The big disconnect that’s taking place between the haves and the have-nots is that the rich and famous have all their credit card debt on “business” expense. Everything, including tuition and summer camp fees are on there. Yawn, ah, it’s a business expense. We’ll mark that down as a business loss. We’ll even save a few dollars on our tax return. Honey, when are we going on our next vacation? On the other hand, The poor hardworking schlub has his cc debt on his personal accounts, eating out of his weekly/monthly paycheck. Everything on the cc is a necessity.
If Bernie Sanders can pull off a wiping of all our cc debt for the lower income class, I will gladly and proudly vote for him. The rest of the world can go to hell.
Instead of the liberals going after the landlords, they should focus on the credit card companies for charging crazy interest