Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: the Rapid Growth of Credit Card Debt in America

Borrowing to Make Ends Meet: the Rapid Growth of Credit Card Debt in America documents the disturbing trends in sky-rocketing credit card debt, and also provides detailed data based on age, race and income demographics. The report discusses how these trends relate to the housing market crisis and the increase in predatory and sub-prime lending in the financial services sector.

Since "income volatility", or the rate of fluctuation in family incomes, has almost doubled in the last two decades while wages have remained flat, families have turned to credit cards as a safety net in tough financial times. As of 2004, when the most recent Survey of Consumer Finances was conducted by the Federal Reserve, three out of every four American households had a credit card. The average debt among households with balances is $5,219. In total, American cardholders owe a staggering $876 billion on their credit cards.

“There’s a common misperception that families with credit card debt live beyond their means,” said report author and Demos Senior Policy Analyst Jose Garcia, “but the findings presented here show that credit card debt is a serious and quickly growing problem for millions of families who don’t have enough income to cover the basic costs of living.“

Borrowing to Make Ends Meet shows how credit cards aggravate the financial distress many households now feel—as healthcare, education and fuel costs rise and mortgage payments reset upward—by trapping cardholders in a cycle of debt with unnecessarily punitive fees and interest rates. Exorbitant charges were not always the industry standard; deregulation in the 80’s and 90’s enabled companies to raise rates far in excess of the risk factor of unsecured debt. Between 2004 and 2005, credit card issuers took in $8 billion in fees alone.

To cope with the rising pressure of credit card debt, and after exhausting other income and assets to meet unexpected costs, America’s families have turned to the equity of their homes. Over the last six years homeowners have cashed out a $1.2 trillion (2006 dollars) in equity, further endangering their financial well-being.

Faced with limited or non-existent assets, rising costs, sluggish wages, and increasing credit card debt, many Americans live on the brink of financial ruin. Borrowing to Make Ends Meet documents this reality by providing data on credit card indebtedness by household income, race/ethnicity, and age.