Study: American Credit Card Debt Close to $1 Trillion

Americans are racking up close to $1 trillion in credit card debt, according to a new study.

The study conducted by personal finance website WalletHub found that American credit card debt rose by 6 percent to $936.10 billion, up from $884.70 billion in 2016.

In the second quarter of 2017, U.S. consumers added $33 billion in debt with credit cards — the second-highest amount of debt since 2008.

WalletHub predicts that U.S. consumers will amass $60 million more in debt with credit cards by the end of 2017, pushing the total amount of credit card debt in America to $1 trillion.

The study notes that the average household credit card balance in the U.S. went up to $7,996 in 2017, up from $7,584 during the same period in 2016.

The year 2016 was the worst for credit card debt since the financial crisis when U.S. consumers amassed $87.2 billion in new credit card debt by the end of the year.

The first quarter of 2017 had promising showings when consumers paid $30.5 billion of the debt before taking on $33 billion in debt in the second quarter from April 1 to June 30.

The reason Americans owe so much to credit cards boils down to rising interest rates, which will only increase as the Federal Reserve plans to raise interest rates at least once more this year.

Even though Americans’ credit card debt has reached new highs, it has not yet reached the level of the national debt, which climbed to $20 trillion for the first time Tuesday.