Record share of Americans carry credit card debt, can't pay off bills
About 111 million Americans are carrying credit card balances, a 17% increase in five years, new research shows.
A record share of Americans are unable to pay off their monthly credit card bills, compounding money woes for U.S. residents grappling with affordability concerns , according to a recent analysis.
Roughly 111 million people — 50% of Americans with a credit card and 40% of the U.S. adult population — carry credit card debt, according to a joint report from The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank, and the advocacy group Protect Borrowers. That's a 17% increase from the 95 million who were in the same situation five years earlier, the report found.
The findings show that Americans were unable to pay their monthly credit card bills even before the war in Iran drove up oil and gas prices, now closing in on $4 a gallon, The Century Foundation president Julie Margetta-Morgan told CBS News. With fuel costs about 34% higher than a month ago, many households may find themselves even more financially strained, she said.
"We were already in an impossible financial situation for most consumers. Now gas prices are rising, and those are rippling throughout the economy," she said.
One-quarter of Americans say they have skipped meals to cover their monthly expenses, while one-third report delaying or skipping medical care, a separate study from The Century Foundation found in December.
"And that was before gas prices spiked," Margetta-Morgan said.