Credit-Card Balances in the US Top $1 Trillion for First Time
- Rates of delinquency have gone back up to pre-Covid levels
- Auto loans outstanding surpass student debt, data show
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Credit-card balances surpassed $1 trillion for the first time last quarter in data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, showing how even more widespread credit has become among American consumers as the US economy recovered from the pandemic.
Balances increased by $45 billion, the most of all debt types, to $1.03 trillion in the second quarter, the New York Fed said in a report Tuesday. The percentage of Americans who are behind in their payments has also been on the rise. Delinquency rates have now returned to pre-Covid levels, but the two most recent quarters “appear to show some stabilization,” New York Fed economists wrote in a blog post.