Just How In Debt (with CCs) Is The Average American?
 

I heard a surprising figure tossed around that the average middle-class American (with a gross annual income of $65,000) is $38,000 in debt to credit cards. Is that true? Where does one actually find the accurate amount?

I read something last week that said the average debt was closer to $20,000. I'll try to find the article.

While I don't know the answer to your question, it has sparked my interest to find out. We must be in some kind of debt if we have a government agency that keeps track of it -

http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpdodt.htm

Ask fastpat, he appears to know everything.
And he has all that parchment, too.
But since he seems to be avoiding you, a "pretty please" may be in order.
;)

Re: Just How In Debt (with CCs) Is The Average American?
 

I think it's a bit high. I see a whole lot of $12-$20K though.

Highest I've ever seen ever was $255K in straight up revolving on a dude that owned a bunch of trailer parks in the midwest.

rjp

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/banking/creditcardsmarts/p74808.asp?printer

Another interesting article that has some useful resources.

ahh.. that's good to know that I'm 'belowaverage'... hehehe

CC debt? What's that?

it ain't Cool Chick! Credit Card

You, that psuedo troll was put to bed...typical fready cat.

He had a rough time with the Saddam cigar thing, didn't he :)

The middle class is under attack and in danger. Did you read about the new credit card reforms Congress passed? They have a bullseye on you and me buddy - don't ever forget it. Bankruptcy laws custom designed to make us all slaves of debt and the credit card companies laugh. They used to put people in jail for loan sharking - and the mob used to charge far less than the current CC companies do.

The chart below is from 2001. Charts like this will be updated later this year, just take a wild guess which way the chart is going. Debt is a real burden on the working poor - oops, I meant middle class.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/creditcardsmarts/P74808.asp
http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/images/debt.gif

The old; like fools, go out and get themselves sick.......no national healthcare........guess what happens? Charge it!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.whatisleft.org/
http://www.whatisleft.org/photos/unc...ard_debt_3.jpg

http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2005_02_13-2005_02_19.shtml
http://volokh.com/files/todd-Credit_Cards_2.jpg

To my knowledge, I don't even know anyone stupid enough to be deep in the hole on credit cards, but the average person is an idiot, happy to live beyond their means

In the past I'd used a CC for an emergency but never again. I got up to $4000 in debt on that and burned up the card.

Hi. My name is Flatbutt and I've been credit card free since 1991.

In the spirit of a CCAA (Credit Card Addicts Anonymous) meeting, I will share my own personal horror story. My wife and I finished our residencies with over $35k in credit card debt. Paid it all off over 18 months. Have been credit card debt free since. Man that was painful to do...

Yikes! :eek: Bet ya'll ate lotsa baloney sandwiches and beany-weenies, huh?

Ed

We have one card and only owe around $3500.00 on it. We are working hard to pay off our truck early and then will start on the card. We both have some debt when we hooked up but have worked hard to get it paid off or down before we had our son. I know lots of people that live on their cards. What, no more overtime? How will I make it?
DUH!!!!!!

The problem is the CC companies encourage it. At 31 I have a MC with a $15,000 limit, my wifes MC is $5000, amex $11,000 and we have an unsecured line of credit of $10,000. By no means are we raking in a ton of dough (although we do have a $300,000 house half paid for) None of these credit cards started out at the current amounts, they simply up the limit every few months. We charge a few hundred per month max and the balance is always paid off.

Also attitude have greatly changed regarding credit. I know my grandparents view credit as something to be embarassed about. Credit now is simply viewed as normal.

Im calling the CC companyy now to lower the limit.

Also attitude have greatly changed regarding credit. I know my grandparents view credit as something to be embarassed about. Credit now is simply viewed as normal. EDIT:This is from Dave's post.

I think this is the problem today. It's not a big deal to just run out and charge what you want right now. It would very easy to buy all of the cool upgrades I want for the 911 on a card. Two reasons I don't though.
1. Wife won't let me.
2. I like having the ability to pay cash for my parts. Weird, but it makes me feel better knowing that I owe noone for my toys.

I'm ashamed to say I'm carrying a balance right now for the first time in about 5 yrs. Though it's on two 0% intro APR cards, so it's interest free. I have a phat tax refund coming soon and that will wipe it out. I got in trouble just out of college, got it fixed and behaved myself ever since. I know a LOT of people who are in cc trouble. It's pretty scary. I can't imagine having $20k in cc debt.

Zero cc debt...though we each have a bunch of credit cards.

Lenders love us. :rolleyes:

My belief is if you can your manage your money then by all means use credit cards to your advantage. For me, credit cards are means to a free vacation or discounts on toys. However, if you want to know what I buy, just give my credit card company a call and they will tell you when and where I shop, what I like to eat, where I exercise and even what type of gas I buy for my car. It's a scary thought but I'm ok with it as long as I stay identity theft free.

Several credit cards. Balance = $0.

We pay them off every month.

Of course there is the $8,260,462,157,256 that we owe as a nation.


Awwww...no big deal, right? After all, thats only

$27,659.74 per person

Your good for it, right? How about that homeless guy over there? Or that child? Or that retired person? I guess your going to have to pick up the slack for them too....bummer.

CC are AWESOME!!! If you know how to play the game. I put all bills, groceries, gas, cars, monthly expenses on a CC. It gets PAID OFF EVERY month, but we get our 5% cash back on EVERYTHING. That's like running around with a coupon in your pocket for every purchase. Why not? Then for large purchases we'll put it on the 5% cash back and transfer it to a 0% CC so we have a year to pay it off. Usually we'll make the minimum payments so our money earns interest for us then in the last month pay the balance to avoid any interest. Then at the end of the year we get a decent check from the CC company.

I only use an Amex card and do the same a Bill. All my bills, groceries, fuel, and business costs are on this one card. It gets paid off every month. The bonus is that its a Starwood Preferred Guest card so every dollar spent is a point towards a free stay in a Weston, W, or Sheraton hotel. Wife and I use it for free mini vacations.

Rewind back about 12 years. We were choked to death by about 10K in CC debt. I was making about 25K a year at the time. We took out a loan at the bank to pay it off in 3 years. About 1 year later we were back in the hole about 5K. It was at this point we realized we had to change our lifestyle and living habits. We worked off both debts and never looked back. It also does not hurt that my yearly income has greatly increased. But that lesson learned 12 years ago serves me well to this day.

I was making 100K a year in early 2001, then when the stock market crashed in March 2001 I got laid off and the IT market took a dump. I was out of IT but had what jobs I could get for the next 12 months. When a year later I got back into IT, I was making 50k. I did that for 2 years. Over the course of those 3 years the debt just continued to climb. My mortgage is less than $1100 a month, the car notes are less than $500 total.

2 weeks ago we paid off 8 cards (and closed them) and a car. We have 1 CC that still has a balance that has a 2.99% interest rate until the balance is paid off, and we are committed to paying much more than the minimum. CC debt sucks booty. I'm never letting that happen again.

OH, the amount, well, we were doing our part to pull the average up.

We also both have good credit with no late payments or defaults on our credit report.

I am like Bill, charge everything on a Citibank card, and get American Airlines miles, but pay it in full at the end of the month.

It feels good to say that we are credit card debt free, but all porscheless, which is why I can have no debt on a credit card.

There are some very interesting points of view in this thread. The max I have ever had on my card was about $6K. About half of that was an engagement ring. :) The other half was from the engine rebuild on that copper Targa I had.

But, that was 5 years ago.

Right now I am carrying about $2K on the card but that is only because we are waiting for the VA to reimburse some college classes. They make you pay out of pocket until they reimburse you.

I am also 27 and have a $15K limit on our one and only credit card. Scary.

I know a single woman who is never going to marry and has no surviving relatives that just accrues credit card debt and has no intentions of every paying them off. I guess that is one way to go.

One of these days she's going to get hammered and then she'll regret it.

Quote:

$27,659.74 per person

Harddrive, this is what each of us owed under the Clinton administration. With Bush and the conservatives steering the ship that amount has been revised upwards to $156,000.00/person. See AARP Bulletin dated Feb. 2006.

Clinton

I have heard of people racking up $30K+ in student loans just declaring bankruptcy to wipe out the debt and dealing with the bad credit for 7 yrs. I assume that is easier than paying off the debt.

I don't know though, that may just be an urban legend.

Leland,

I have know people that have done this, not sure if it worked. It is much harder to declare BK these days, so I think those days are over.

Michael

I think my balance is about $200 right now. That's still $200 too much, but I pay it off monthly anyhow.

Credit cards and cc companies are the antichrist in plastic form, IMO.

$30k in student loans is nothing. That won't even buy you one year at a lot of schools now.

And bankruptcy won't discharge student loan debt. It's "protected". One reason I didn't go that route when we hit rock bottom several years ago - it wouldn't have gained us much in the long run.

The new bankruptcy laws pretty much render bankruptcy worthless - it doesn't really gain you anything other than an end to the phone calls, which is easily enough done by simply not answering the phone. If in doubt, I'd say talk to an attorney or finance advisor, but if you think you're going to avoid paying back the man for student loans by bankruptcy filing, you're in for a nasty surprise.

Trust me, if you could discharge those things, I'd have done it already. Even active duty military doesn't get exempted. Even DYING doesn't exempt you (next-of-kin gets the bill for a lot of them). Believe me, our system is quite carefully constructed to make sure that unless you're born into money or don't pursue higher education, you're kept enslaved for a very long time.

Yep, this is the route that we are going.

Actually you can get a student loan debt discharged in bankruptcy. Not easy though. You have to be able to show that the student loan debt will make it unable for the debtor to really get a fresh start and that the debtor will not be able to repay the loan even with all the other debts being discharged.

Would you buy a Colt 1911A1 US Military Brushed Blue 97% condition for $2000 and put it on a card at 2.99% Life of Loan?

Just to make it easier on U boyz the value of the Colt is $4000 to $4500

Also guns right now are Semi-Liquid investments...

kach22i: Your arguments fail to consider personal responsibility in accruing cc debt. No CC company forces you to charge. As in all things, personal restraint must be exercised.

With respect to the change in cc laws, these changes raise the minimum monthly payment so that it includes some principal reduction. In prior years, minimum payments often failed to cover all inderest charged for the month.

Credit can be a wonderful thing - and there are very valid arguments with respect to the mix of credit and capital in business formation (never 100% of either), but don't max out those cards!!!!

This seems to be a very one-dimensional discussion. Credit card debt is just part of the picture. You really need to look at the whole package car loans, equity lines of credit, bank loans, small business debt. I think people are carrying a lot more debt these days than they are willing to admit to.