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Americans Ramp Up Credit-Card Spending in Return to Old Habits
- Credit card balances rose for a 2nd quarter: N.Y. Fed data
- About $3.2 trillion in credit available to U.S households
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Americans are racking up bills on credit cards, returning to pre-pandemic habits after emergency relief programs ended and the economy reopened.
Credit card balances increased by $17 billion to $800 billion in the third quarter, the second gain in a row after a year of declines, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said Tuesday. While the total number is $123 billion lower than at the end of 2019, the past two quarters mark a return to relative normalcy.