Posted on 02/04/2023 11:47:06 AM PST by Golden Eagle
For most Americans, inflation and rising interest rates are a one-two punch.
On the heels of another rate hike this week by the Federal Reserve, credit card annual percentage rates are already near 20%, on average, and set to climb even higher. At the same time, more consumers are leaning on credit to afford increasingly expensive necessities, like food and rent.
That helped propel total credit card debt to a record $930.6 billion at the end of 2022, a 18.5% spike from a year earlier, according to the latest quarterly report by TransUnion.
The average balance rose to $5,805 over that same period, TransUnion found.
At nearly 20%, if you made minimum payments toward this average credit card balance, it would take you more than 17 years to pay off the debt and cost you more than $8,213 in interest, Bankrate calculated.
Overall, an additional 202 million new credit accounts were opened in the fourth quarter, led by originations among Generation Z, or adults ages 18 to 25, and the tally of total credit cards hit a record 518.4 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
Coping with Bidenflation while Biden family makes billions!
Not surprising... when you routinely see people claiming to be “broke” walking around with $1200 cell phones, dining out at restaurants multiple nights a week, etc... all bought with plastic.
I remember being dirt poor. I didn’t have a credit card so I came out fine.
“and it will only take 23 years to pay off your balance if you make the minimum payment”
And no doubt they’ll make sure when it blows up, a Republican will be in the White House.
Yeah. We haven’t had a credit card balance carryover (on purpose - a couple of payments were “lost in the mail”) in over 30 years. Add to that owning a home with no mortgage, and owning two vehicles with no auto loans, gives us a good idea of our discretionary income.
I’M STUPID.
I pay my credit cards off every month.
Due to my location I shop on-line a lot
Hard to pay cash, or I would be cash only.
If someone wants a $1,200 cell phone, fine, assuming it is kept for several years. It's the constant upgrade cycle to get the latest and greatest every year or so that adds to the cost factor.
“and it will only take 23 years to pay off your balance if you make the minimum payment”
That’s a funny one because it will only get paid off in 23 years if you don’t ever use the card again!
I always wondered how people who couldn’t pay their bills for the month thought raising their debt every month would lead to anything other than a delay in their coming bankruptcy blow-up. Maybe part of their monthly expenses were lottery tickets.
Demoncrats in action.
That’s the way to do things! I put huge money on our main card now, every bill that doesn’t have a fee for using the card, that’s how I pay it, utilities and insurance too. I get over a thousand $s a year back in cash rebates, which I simply apply against the monthly bill.
My credit card been very good to me.
NESARA note - when the fiat folds, and PM-backed CBDCs come to the rescue, there is a call for a jubilee - will be most existing loans including credit cards. So, figure one free month of whatever is remaining on the credit card.
Dave Ramsey won’t like us. A credit card is not optional for my business. I am not about to go to my suppliers with $20,000 in cash for my inventory. I pay off my card every month. And I even heard the “rewards” are immoral to use from his show.
By the way. You can buy his books on his site with credit cards....
“when the fiat folds”
That wet dream isn’t coming true anytime soon. They can get away with what they are doing for a long while yet.
I got my first credit card from Sears & Roebuck when I was still in the Marines around the 1983 timeframe. Though my initial credit limit was a whopping $250, I felt like a big shot at the time, as I whipped it out to pay for a pair of jeans or a box of blank cassette tapes so I could record the Dr. Demento show back at the barracks.
My first bill arrived with a balance of over $100 but a required minimum payment of $15.
I saw where that was going.
You are correct. People these days have no clue what it’s like to actually be poor. Subscriptions here and there, a cell phone bill. Good groceries in house, delivered fast food for insane prices, coffee huts lined up full of traffic.
No clue.
Credit cards are an excellent financial tool-
When used correctly. Just like loans and mortgages.
Americans as a whole lack the proper understanding of correct usage and just debt spend with no purpose like the whores of D.C.
Sears was my first card too in about the same time frame. First purchase was tools for my job, so I made the money back pretty fast.
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