Average Credit Card Debt Much Higher Than Most Americans Think

moneyland.time.com:

A new study published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York took a sweeping, multi-year look at data about the debt Americans carry and how much we know about those debts. One strange finding: Single people are much better at estimating the amount they owe than people who share their household with a partner.

Read the whole story: moneyland.time.com

Comments

[Jay Gould]

04:30 PM on 11/11/2011

I think the most amazing stat in the paper is the discrepancy in the aggregate credit card debt totals, as reported by the borrowers and lenders. Americans think they owe $391 billion on credit cards, while the issuers estimate the figure to be $820 billion. Even after allowing for the various adjustments the researchers cite, the figure reported by cardholders only rises to between 52% and 66% of the one reported by issuers.

It is simply incredible that what Americans think they owe on their credit cards is only half of what the actual total is. Moreover, if Americans can’t figure out or don’t want to know how much they owe on credit cards, how they can know exactly how much they owe in all other debt categories, which is what the NY Fed tells us. http://blog.unibulmerchantservices.com/do-you-know-what-you-owe-on-credit-cards