More Gloomy Economic News: More and More Americans are Living Off Credit Cards
"Charge it!" That seems to be how more and more people in the United States are surviving (and as you can guess, a poor long-term strategy):
Government and agency statistics illustrate this troubling trend. The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that Americans’ credit card debt jumped 6.7% in the first quarter of this year to $957.2 billion, This spike comes despite the fact that nearly one in three banks is tightening guidelines for credit cards.
In Atlanta, debtors calling the agency in the first quarter of this year had an average of $29,300 in unsecured debt, primarily on credit cards, up from $25,700 in 2007. They spent $335 on groceries and $242 on gas, on average, in April. A year earlier, those outlays averaged only $291 and $181, respectively.
For many people, racking up credit card debt is not a choice they want to make, experts say. Not too long ago, they could have tapped into the equity in their homes through loans or lines of credit or refinancing. But this debt, which usually carries lower interest rates, is no longer as widely available with the collapse of the housing market.
So, faced with soaring costs for food and fuel, people find they must charge more to make ends meet.
this post? Please 
Fritz
Morgan
L
Barbwire
Pol x
-
Your purchase helps support the blog - Thank you!
