The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, act as legal, financial or credit advice; instead, it is for general informational purposes only. Information on this website may not be current. This website may contain links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user or browser; we do not recommend or endorse the contents of any third-party sites. Readers of this website should contact their attorney, accountant or credit counselor to obtain advice with respect to their particular situation. No reader, user, or browser of this site should act or not act on the basis of information on this site. Always seek personal legal, financial or credit advice for your relevant jurisdiction. Only your individual attorney or advisor can provide assurances that the information contained herein – and your interpretation of it – is applicable or appropriate to your particular situation. Use of, and access to, this website or any of the links or resources contained within the site do not create an attorney-client or fiduciary relationship between the reader, user, or browser and website owner, authors, contributors, contributing firms, or their respective employers.
Credit.com receives compensation for the financial products and services advertised on this site if our users apply for and sign up for any of them. Compensation is not a factor in the substantive evaluation of any product.
The average balances across all accounts carried by the nation’s youngest borrowers stood at $32,587 through the end of October 2012, down significantly from the $39,408 in the same month five years earlier, according to the latest data from the FICO Banking Analytics Blog. Since that time, average debts for all types of balances (save for student loans) have fallen appreciably, with a special consideration apparently having been paid to slashing credit card debts.
In all, credit card debt declined by nearly a third during this five-year period, slipping to $2,087 from $3,073, the report said. Much of this change came, it seems, as a result of a larger percentage of young people no longer having this type of account in their own names. In all, about one in every six people in this age group is without a credit card, up from only about 12 percent three years earlier, and nearly double the roughly 9 percent observed in 2005. Part of this can be attributed to a portion of the Credit Card Responsibility, Accountability and Disclosure Act, which made it more difficult for those under the age of 21 to obtain an account in the first place.
The percentage of young people without credit cards, predictably, far exceeds those for other age groups, the report said. Only about 8 percent of consumers 30 to 39 years old don’t have these accounts, compared with some 6 percent of those 40 to 49, 4 percent of people in their 50s, and less than 2 percent of people 60 or more years old.
Today, the average college student leaves school with tens of thousands of dollars or more in outstanding debts, most of which are comprised of student loan balances that can be especially burdensome. Adding in credit card debt and auto loans may make it extremely difficult for manyyoung people to gain the financial independence soon after graduation that their parents might have enjoyed, and reduce their capabilities of buying a house for a lengthy period of time.
Image: Hemera
May 30, 2023
Managing Debt
September 7, 2021
Managing Debt
December 23, 2020
Managing Debt