NEW YORK—At a time when credit card interest rates remain as high as ever, more Americans are finding themselves carrying credit card debt from month to month, a new survey has found.
The Findings
The survey found:
- 50% of credit cardholders surveyed in June as part of Bankrate's latest Credit Card Debt Survey said they carry balances over month to month. That is up from 44% in January – and the highest since March 2020, when 60% of people carried debt from month to month, according to Bankrate's surveys.
- 36% of cardholders have credit card debt that's higher than their emergency savings, according to Bankrate's findings. That's the same amount as a year ago and the highest since Bankrate began asking the question in 2011. “This comes at a time when the average credit card interest rate in the U.S. is 24.92% – the highest since LendingTree began tracking rates monthly in 2019, the online lending marketplace reported,” USA Today noted in its analysis.
- 58% do not have a plan to pay off their credit cards.
The Bankrate survey included 2,350 U.S. adults and was conducted by YouGov in June.