Complete Debt Consolidation Reviews for 2026

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Americans have a record amount of credit card debt $1.252 trillion, to be exact. This credit card debt statistics page tracks Americans' credit card utilize each month.

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While charge card debt tends to increase year over year, it usually falls from Q4 of one year to Q1 of the next. The last time we saw card financial obligation increase in Q1 remained in 2001. (The only time it didn't fall in Q1 ever since was 2023, when it stayed the same.) Even with this quarter's reduction, credit card balances have actually increased by $482 billion because Q1 2021, when credit card financial obligation bottomed out at $770 billion throughout the pandemic.

Americans' charge card debt is $325 billion greater than the pre-pandemic record set in Q4 2019, when balances stood at $927 billion. (That's a 35% increase.) Charge card balances have historically rebounded after first-quarter declines, though future loaning trends will depend upon factors including rates of interest, inflation and wider economic conditions.

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Charge card debt rose gradually up until the financial crisis, then declined from $866 billion in Q4 2008 to $660 billion in Q1 2013 before resuming its upward trajectory. When the pandemic took hold in 2020, credit card balances plunged again from $927 billion in Q4 2019 to $770 billion in Q1 2021.

Credit cardholders in Connecticut have the highest typical charge card financial obligation of any state, according to LendingTree data, while those in Mississippi have the most affordable. Source: LendingTree analysis of the anonymized credit reports of more than 400,000 LendingTree users in the 3rd quarter of 2025 and more than 410,000 in Q3 2024.

Joint accounts were divided in half to reflect shared duty in between the account holders. LendingTree experts examined anonymized credit report data from Q3 2025 for more than 400,000 LendingTree users to compute these averages and produce a list of states with the most financial obligation. The analysis was also compared to Q3 2024 information from more than 410,000 reports.

Eleven states had average balances of at least $9,000. Washington has the fastest-growing card financial obligation in the duration examined.

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Three other states saw double-digit increases, consisting of South Dakota (up 11.7%), Nebraska (up 11.3%) and Wisconsin (up 10.2%). New Mexico saw the biggest year-over-year reduction in debt, with its citizens' financial obligation falling 10.3% from $6,543 to $5,871. In all, 7 states saw charge card balances decrease in the previous year.

Fewer than half of adult credit cardholders (45%) brought a balance on a charge card for at least one month in the previous year, according to a May 2026 Federal Reserve research study using 2025 data. Paying a charge card balance in complete each month is the most efficient method to avoid interest charges and keep financial obligation from building up.

For cards accruing interest, the average in Q2 2026 was 22.15%. For new credit card provides, the average is 23.79%.

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Customers opening a brand-new charge card account may face higher rates than the averages for existing accounts. The latest LendingTree data on credit card APRs reveals that the average APR with a brand-new credit card offer is 23.79%, with the average card using an APR range of 20.18% to 27.41%.

When the Fed raises or lowers rates, a lot of credit card APRs in the U.S.No matter when the Fed acts next, any movement is likely to be small, meaning credit card APRs would likely remain elevated by historical standards. Simply 2.92% of Americans' exceptional credit card balances were at least 30 days delinquent in the very first quarter of 2026., the 30-day delinquency rate the share of exceptional credit card balances that were at least 30 days past due dipped to 2.92% in the very first quarter of 2026, the seventh straight quarterly decrease.