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Credit Card Statistics

By Credit.com

Credit Card Usage & Household Debt
  • 92.5 million US households have at least one credit card. It is estimated that 20% of households do not have any credit cards.

  • In 2007, the average household with credit cards carried $10,385 in debt, a 7% increase from 2006.  

  • Credit card balances account for 6.9% of all household debt, down from 9.5% in 1998.
Year
 Debt per Household w/ Cards
 % Change
 1995$5,8000 19.4%
 1996$6,634 12.7%
 1997$6,811 4.2%
 1998$6,885 1.1%
 1999$7,342 6.6%
 2000 $8,114 10.5%
 2001 $8,288 2.2%
 2002 $8,724 5.3%
 2003  $8,664 -0.7%
 2004  $8,918 2.9%
 2005  $9,184 3.0%
 2006  $9,686 5.5%
 2007  $10,385 7.2%

(Source: The Nilson Report, August 2008)

Credit Card Prevalence
  • There were 3.03 billion credit cards in circulation worldwide at the end of 2007, up 13.6% from the previous year. (Source: The Nilson Report, May 2008)
Credit Card Charge-Offs
  • The U.S. monthly credit card charge-off rate surpassed 10 percent and hit a sixth straight record high in May, Moody's Investors Services said on Wednesday, as unemployment grew to a 26-year high. The charge-off rate index -- which measures credit card loans the banks do not expect to be repaid -- rose to 10.62 percent in May from 9.97 percent in April 2009.
    (Source: Moody's Credit Card Index, June 24, 2009) 
Largest Credit Card Issuers
By Volume in 2007:
  1. American Express ($446 billion)
  2. JPMorgan Chase ($361 billion)
  3. Bank of America ($339 billion)
  4. Citigroup ($271 billion)
  5. Capital One ($125 billion)
  6. Discover ($106 billion)
  7. U.S. Bank ($70 billion)
  8. Wells Fargo ($50 billion)
  9. HSBC ($48 billion)
  10. GE Money ($28 billion)
(Source: The Nilson Report, January 2008)

Credit Card Approvals
  • About 15% of all credit card applications are rejected due to a lack of positive credit information (“thin file”). (Source: The Nilson Report, September 2007)
Credit Card Rewards
  • Credit cards with rewards programs significantly increase the average monthly spending of a cardholder. The average monthly spending with a traditional Visa card is $465. With a Visa rewards card, this increases 91% to $890. (Source: The Nilson Report, July 2007)
Credit Card Fraud
  • Credit card fraud worldwide in 2007 equaled 4.7 cents per $100 in total purchase volume. In 2007, this totaled over $5.55 billion. (Source: The Nilson Report, November 2008)

  
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