The best magazine
With the collapse of the housing markets and massive hikes in credit card debt, the average American has been faced with challenges that have proven particularly difficult to overcome.
For many, credit card debt is just too much to handle.
With easy credit lines being available to cover everyday costs, the interest rates alone can pile up on what real money is available to spend.
As a result, consumers may link together credit cards, paying one off with help from another, and so on.
The result of all this debt has been a heavy weight on the average American.
Through consumer reports and surveys, official figures from the Federal Reserve, and even some numbers linked to the Census, a general idea of how much Americans can be estimated.
2010 was not a particularly bad or particularly good year for credit card debt on a national level.
Although, comparatively, the rising debt figures and already massively high debt totals signaled a hard road ahead in 2011, they were certainly not historical highs.
In 2008, consumers owed $975 billion in this type of debt in total, marking an all-time high for American consumers.
In an attempt to engineer financial improvement, banks cut out $76 billion in this debt, bringing the figure back down to $899 billion in 2009.
It has since gone up to $917 billion.
On an average level, many Americans hold a substantial portion of their yearly income in credit card debt alone.
Although the national average per card holder hovers around $5,100, the state high reached $7,665 in Alaska.
On the other hand, Iowa measured the state-level low average at $4,247.
To learn more about bankruptcy in these cases, contact a bankruptcy attorney.
Source: ...