Surveys from WalletHub show credit card debt increased by almost $39.6 billion in the third quarter of 2022 and more than half of Americans feel plagued by the Federal Reserve’s recent rate hikes.
12/09/2022 11:55 A.M.
2 minute read
This week, WalletHub released its most recent Credit Card Debt Study, Federal Reserve Rate Hike Report, and report on the Cities with the Most & Least-Sustainable Credit Card Debt to show how consumers are faring in the face of inflation pressures and worries about a prolonged recession. Key highlights are included below.
Credit Card Debt Study Key Stats:
- Credit card debt increased by almost $39.6 billion during Q3 2022, an all-time record for the third quarter of the year.
- Consumers’ Q3 2022 credit card debt increase was 2.4 times bigger than the post-Great Recession average for a third quarter.
- WalletHub projects that consumers will end the year with roughly $110 billion more in credit card debt than they started with, which would be close to an annual record.
- A Federal Reserve interest rate increase on Dec. 14 would cost people with credit card debt at least an extra $3.2 billion in the next year alone. That’s on top of the $22.9 billion increase already caused by the Fed’s previous rate hikes this year.
Fed Rate Hike Survey Findings:
- Sixty-three percent of Americans say their wallets have been affected by the Fed’s rate hikes this year.
- Two in three Americans think inflation is going to be worse in 2023.
- Almost three in four people think the recent elections will not help tame inflation.
- Forty-nine percent of Americans say they are not financially prepared for a recession.
- Fifty-four percent of Americans say inflation has affected their holiday plans.
- Sixty-eight percent of people say inflation has affected their monthly grocery expenses the most, followed by gas (23%) and housing (9%).
Among the cities with the most sustainable credit card debt were Fremont, San Francisco, Irvine and San Jose, California. Cities with the least sustainable credit card debt included Hialeah and Miami, Florida, and cities in Texas, Virginia and Tennessee, among others.
Read the complete rankings here.
Read the complete surveys:
- Credit Card Debt Study
- Federal Reserve Rate Hike Report
- Cities with the Most & Least-Sustainable Credit Card Debt
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