Dive Brief:
- Between 2022 and 2025, the average U.S. household credit card debt rose by $150, or 5%, to $3,100, according to the Federal Reserve Board’s triennial Survey of Consumer Finances released last Friday. During the same period, the median figure for that U.S. credit card debt — as in the value in the middle of the set — jumped by $1,300 to $8,000, the report showed.
- The share of survey respondents who owned transaction accounts, including prepaid debit cards, checking accounts and savings accounts, remained at 98.7% in 2025, about the same as in 2022 at 98.6%. However, the median value of those accounts dipped 6% between 2022 and 2025 to $8,200, the survey of 4,367 families found.
- “Families were more likely to be behind on their financial obligations than at any point since the 2010 survey,” the report said. “Between the 2022 and 2025 surveys, the share of families that reported being behind on loan payments sharply increased from about 12 percent to almost 20 percent,” the report said. “Furthermore, more than 8 percent reported being two months late or more, up from 5 percent in 2022.”
Dive Insight:
During the same 2022 to 2025 period, the average credit card interest rate jumped from 14.6% to 21.4%, according to the report.
While some credit cardholders are watching their balances balloon over time, others merely use the payment tool for convenience without carrying a balance, according to the report.
The proportion of families reporting a credit card balance after their last payment declined slightly from 45.2% in 2022 to 44.7% in 2025.
The share of survey respondents who used credit cards without carrying a balance remained about the same, at 55.8% in 2025, compared with 55.7% in 2022. Still, that proportion is lower than 64% who said the same in 2013, per the report.
The Fed’s latest survey builds on previous research indicating that consumers rely heavily on debit and credit cards.
In the Fed’s triennial payments study, debit cards accounted for the majority of noncash payments, totaling 120.6 billion in 2024. But while debit card usage grew at the slowest rate over the previous three years, credit card transactions exceeded debit card growth during that same period, per the study.
As the Fed tracks rising credit card debt and interest rates, other reports signal growing strain among credit cardholders.
The share of financially unhealthy credit cardholders ticked up from 56% last year to 60% this year, according to a J.D. Power survey released in August. Roughly three in 10 respondents in that survey with credit card debt had a balance of $2,500 or more.
