Households Far From “Tapped Out”: Credit Card Balances, Burden, Available Credit, Delinquencies & Collections

by Wolf Richter Wolf Street

Credit cards are a huge payment method but not a big borrowing method.

For the first time in at least two decades, credit card balances remained unchanged in Q1 from the Q4 holiday spending binge, rather than dropping. In the data going back to 2003, credit card balances always dropped in Q1 from Q4, and often by large amounts. But this was the first time they didn’t drop. Which shows just how strong spending has been in Q1, because credit card balances are mostly a measure of spending and prices rather than a measure of debt.

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