NEW YORK—A new study shows consumers are still paying off debt from last year’s holiday purchases.
The NerdWallet report reveals that 28% of shoppers who used credit cards have not paid off the presents they bought for their loved ones last year. The site polled more than 1,700 adults in September, CNBC said.
However, this is a slight improvement from 2023, when 31% of credit card users had still not paid off their balances from the year before. Growth in credit card balances has also slowed, according to a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion, CNBC noted.
“Although overall credit card balances were 6.9% higher at the end of the third quarter compared with a year earlier, that’s a significant improvement from the 15% year-over-year jump from Q3 2022 to Q3 2023, TransUnion found,” CNBC reported.
The average balance per consumer now stands at $6,329, rising only 4.8% year over year — compared with an 11.2% increase the year before and 12.4% the year before that.