Credit Card Facts and Stats

-Americans owe approximately $850 billion in revolving credit card debt.i

-As of 2007, 73% of all American households had credit cards and 60% of these households carried a balance. The average balance for households that carried a balance was $7,300, up 30.4% from 2004.ii

-Low- and middle-income households have an average of $8,650 in credit card debt.iii

-The total amount of credit made available by issuers in 2007 was about $5 trillion, or $43,007 per household.iv

-Even as the economy worsens, Americans continue to be inundated with offers of credit. In 2008, issuers sent 4.2 billion credit card offers in the mail - nearly four times as many as the 1.1 billion sent in 1990.v