What's the Truth About American's Credit Card Debt
Many sources, including the government, the media, and even bank officials, have claimed that the American people have a lot of credit card debt. There are many rumors going around saying that Americans owe thousands of dollars each in credit card debt. They usually will give statistics with their claims to help back the claims up. However the truth about Americans credit card debt is often skewed and hidden. The only way to see the truth is to break down the numbers.
The most over used and over rated statistic states that each American has more than $8,000 in credit card debt. The statistic is only true if you're taking the average credit card debt among the people that have credit cards. However this is usually a big misconception as the word average is often easily confused. Many people believe that they arrived at this number by dividing the credit card debt among everyone. However this couldn't be further from the truth. They only used the number of Americans that have credit cards which leaves out a huge number of Americans in the averaging factor.
The truth is that 1 in 20 American households actually have more than $8,000 in credit card debt. This is because many families don't even have credit cards. Another huge chunk of American families pay off their credit cards as soon as they get the bill and thus don't even owe anything to the credit card companies even though they have credit cards. Out of the remaining families only a very few owe $2,000 or more in credit card debt. Thus you can see that the "average American household" number is deceiving.
The reason that the truth about credit card debt is hidden is because of how they got the $8,000 number. They got it by taking $750 billion, which is all the outstanding credit card debt, and divided it by 84 million, which is the number of American households that have credit cards. While this may seem reasonable at first glance it's just a myth when you're talking about the average American household.
An astounding 23.8% of American households don't even have credit cards! These households weren't included in the calculation since they don't have credit cards. Another 31.2% of Americans pay off their cards as soon as they get the bill. This totals to an astounding 55% of American households that have no credit card debt.
Out of the 45% 29% have $1,000 or more in credit card debt, 21% of households owe $2000 or more, 4% owe $10,000 or more, and 1% owe $21,000 or more. These numbers show that 26% of the American people carry all of the debt that is owed for debt that is $2,000 or more. American households owe very little to credit card companies. Most of the households that due have credit card debt have less than $1,000. The truth is that most of the American people are not in credit card debt and nowhere near the rumored numbers. - 23218
The most over used and over rated statistic states that each American has more than $8,000 in credit card debt. The statistic is only true if you're taking the average credit card debt among the people that have credit cards. However this is usually a big misconception as the word average is often easily confused. Many people believe that they arrived at this number by dividing the credit card debt among everyone. However this couldn't be further from the truth. They only used the number of Americans that have credit cards which leaves out a huge number of Americans in the averaging factor.
The truth is that 1 in 20 American households actually have more than $8,000 in credit card debt. This is because many families don't even have credit cards. Another huge chunk of American families pay off their credit cards as soon as they get the bill and thus don't even owe anything to the credit card companies even though they have credit cards. Out of the remaining families only a very few owe $2,000 or more in credit card debt. Thus you can see that the "average American household" number is deceiving.
The reason that the truth about credit card debt is hidden is because of how they got the $8,000 number. They got it by taking $750 billion, which is all the outstanding credit card debt, and divided it by 84 million, which is the number of American households that have credit cards. While this may seem reasonable at first glance it's just a myth when you're talking about the average American household.
An astounding 23.8% of American households don't even have credit cards! These households weren't included in the calculation since they don't have credit cards. Another 31.2% of Americans pay off their cards as soon as they get the bill. This totals to an astounding 55% of American households that have no credit card debt.
Out of the 45% 29% have $1,000 or more in credit card debt, 21% of households owe $2000 or more, 4% owe $10,000 or more, and 1% owe $21,000 or more. These numbers show that 26% of the American people carry all of the debt that is owed for debt that is $2,000 or more. American households owe very little to credit card companies. Most of the households that due have credit card debt have less than $1,000. The truth is that most of the American people are not in credit card debt and nowhere near the rumored numbers. - 23218
About the Author:
Layla Vanderbilt is the content coordinator for a leading website that offers for bad debt consolidation advice and guidance.
posted by X - Men @ 3:00 AM
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