CREDIT CARD DEBT—

The top issuer of general purpose credit cards in the US is Bank of America. Visa is number one in market share (ranked by card type) with 54% followed by MasterCard at 29%.

The first widely accepted plastic charge card was issued in 1958 by American Express. Today they are third in the market share race with 13%.

Surprisingly, the Federal Reserve reports the average interest rate across all existing credit card accounts was 13.46% in May 2007.

The median US household income is currently $43,200 and the typical family’s median credit card balance was $2,200. (Median means half owe more and half owe less).

The media likes to report a figure of credit card debt over $8,000 for families, but that figure is arrived at by using “average” rather than “median” figures, the latter being favored by statisticians as the more meaningful.

Interestingly, the majority of US households have no credit card debt. About one quarter of households do not have any credit cards and an additional 30% pay off their balances monthly according to the Federal Reserve.

About 40% of credit card holders carry a balance of less than $1,000. About 15% have card balances in excess of $10,000.

At least one in 10 consumers has more than 10 credit cards in their wallets. The overall average is 4 cards per consumer.

One very serious problem with credit card debt involves folks paying only their minimum payment each month.

Paying a typical 2% minimum of your balance each month barely covers the interest, and leaves very little to apply to your actual balance. That's why, if you owe $2,000 or more, and you only pay the minimum balance of 2% each month, it will take you approximately 30 years to pay off your balance even if you never charge another penny.

Ouch.