Finding 2026 Financial Hardship Help

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Americans have a record quantity of credit card debt $1.252 trillion, to be precise. This credit card debt stats page tracks Americans' credit card utilize each month.

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While credit card debt tends to rise year over year, it normally falls from Q4 of one year to Q1 of the next. Even with this quarter's decrease, credit card balances have risen by $482 billion because Q1 2021, when credit card debt bottomed out at $770 billion throughout the pandemic.

Americans' credit card financial obligation is $325 billion higher than the pre-pandemic record embeded in Q4 2019, when balances stood at $927 billion. (That's a 35% increase.) Credit card balances have actually traditionally rebounded after first-quarter declines, though future loaning trends will depend on aspects including interest rates, inflation and wider financial conditions.

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Charge card financial obligation increased steadily until the monetary 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 once again from $927 billion in Q4 2019 to $770 billion in Q1 2021.

Credit cardholders in Connecticut have the highest average charge card financial obligation of any state, according to LendingTree information, while those in Mississippi have the least expensive. Source: LendingTree analysis of the anonymized credit reports of more than 400,000 LendingTree users in the third 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 analysts examined anonymized credit report information from Q3 2025 for more than 400,000 LendingTree users to compute these averages and develop a list of states with the most financial obligation. The analysis was also compared with 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 period analyzed.

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Three other states saw double-digit increases, including South Dakota (up 11.7%), Nebraska (up 11.3%) and Wisconsin (up 10.2%). New Mexico saw the biggest year-over-year decrease in debt, with its residents' debt falling 10.3% from $6,543 to $5,871. In all, seven states saw charge card balances reduce in the past year.

Less than half of adult credit cardholders (45%) brought a balance on a credit card for at least one month in the previous year, according to a May 2026 Federal Reserve research study utilizing 2025 data. Paying a charge card balance in full every month is the most efficient method to avoid interest charges and keep debt from collecting.

For cards accumulating interest, the average in Q2 2026 was 22.15%. For brand-new credit card offers, the average is 23.79%.

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Consumers opening a brand-new credit card account may deal with higher rates than the averages for existing accounts. The most recent LendingTree data on credit card APRs shows that the average APR with a brand-new charge card deal is 23.79%, with the average card using an APR variety of 20.18% to 27.41%.

The 23.79% average was unchanged for the second straight month and 3rd in 4. It's the first time because LendingTree began tracking card rates regular monthly that they went the same in back-to-back months. That stability is most likely the outcome of the Fed leaving rates the same throughout 2026. 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 motion is likely to be little, suggesting charge card APRs would likely stay elevated by historical standards. And as the chart listed below shows, APRs can vary significantly by card type. Source: LendingTree evaluation of openly available terms and conditions for about 220 U.S.Naturally, your finest move is to make those rates of interest a moot point by paying your card debt completely, but that's typically easier said than done. Simply 2.92% of Americans' outstanding credit card balances were at least one month overdue in the very first quarter of 2026. According to the latest delinquency information from the Fed, the 30-day delinquency rate the share of outstanding credit card balances that were at least one month past due dipped to 2.92% in the very first quarter of 2026, the seventh straight quarterly decline.