How to Get 2026 Financial Hardship Assistance

How Does LendingTree Get Paid? We are committed to supplying accurate material that helps you make informed money decisions.

Read our editorial standards here. Americans have a record amount of charge card debt $1.252 trillion, to be precise. This credit card financial obligation statistics page tracks Americans' charge card utilize every month. We update this page regularly, examining just how much debt consumers hold, how often they bring balances from month to month, how regularly they pay their credit card expenses late and other key patterns.

apfsc.org

While charge card debt tends to increase year over year, it typically falls from Q4 of one year to Q1 of the next. The last time we saw card financial obligation boost in Q1 remained in 2001. (The only time it didn't fall in Q1 ever since was 2023, when it remained the same.) Even with this quarter's reduction, credit card balances have risen by $482 billion because Q1 2021, when charge card debt bottomed out at $770 billion during the pandemic.

Americans' charge card financial obligation is $325 billion greater than the pre-pandemic record set in Q4 2019, when balances stood at $927 billion. (That's a 35% increase.) Credit card balances have historically rebounded after first-quarter declines, though future borrowing trends will depend upon elements including interest rates, inflation and more comprehensive financial conditions.

Effective 2026 Debt Relief Solutions for Families

Credit card debt increased steadily up until the monetary crisis, then decreased from $866 billion in Q4 2008 to $660 billion in Q1 2013 before resuming its upward trajectory. Then, when the pandemic took hold in 2020, charge card balances plunged 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 3rd quarter of 2025 and more than 410,000 in Q3 2024.

Joint accounts were divided in half to show shared responsibility in between the account holders. LendingTree experts examined anonymized credit report information from Q3 2025 for more than 400,000 LendingTree users to compute these averages and produce a list of states with the most debt. The analysis was also compared with Q3 2024 data from more than 410,000 reports.

Eleven states had typical balances of at least $9,000. Washington has the fastest-growing card financial obligation in the period analyzed.

Can Debt Relief Help Your Credit Future?

Three other states saw double-digit increases, consisting of South Dakota (up 11.7%), Nebraska (up 11.3%) and Wisconsin (up 10.2%). New Mexico saw the largest year-over-year decrease in financial obligation, with its locals' debt falling 10.3% from $6,543 to $5,871. In all, 7 states saw charge card balances decrease in the past year.

Less than half of adult credit cardholders (45%) carried a balance on a charge card for a minimum of one month in the previous year, according to a May 2026 Federal Reserve research study using 2025 information. Paying a credit card balance completely every month is the most efficient way to avoid interest charges and keep debt from accumulating.

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

apfsc.org

Consumers opening a brand-new charge card account might face higher rates than the averages for existing accounts. The current LendingTree data on credit card APRs reveals that the average APR with a new charge card offer is 23.79%, with the average card using an APR variety of 20.18% to 27.41%.

When the Fed raises or lowers rates, the majority of credit card APRs in the U.S.No matter when the Fed acts next, any movement is likely to be small, meaning credit card APRs would likely remain elevated by historical standards. Just 2.92% of Americans' impressive credit card balances were at least 30 days overdue in the very first quarter of 2026., the 30-day delinquency rate the share of exceptional credit card balances that were at least 30 days past due dipped to 2.92% in the first quarter of 2026, the seventh straight quarterly reduction.