Many sources, including the government, the media, and even bank officials, have claimed that the American people have a lot of credit card debt. There are many rumors going around saying that Americans owe thousands of dollars each in credit card debt. They usually will give statistics with their claims to help back the claims up. However the truth about Americans credit card debt is often skewed and hidden. The only way to see the truth is to break down the numbers.
You may have heard the statistic that the average American has more than $8,000 in credit card debt. While this statistic is true, it only holds true if you're considering every American in the country. Most statistics don't include every American, only those that have credit cards. Thus our image of the average American family with a house and kids is skewed as not all of these "average" Americans have credit card debt. The problem is when they mention the word average in their statistics we are lead to believe that it's this type of family that we often think of when in fact they actually use the mean of the people who have credit card debt.
The truth is that 1 in 20 American households actually have more than $8,000 in credit card debt. This is because many families don't even have credit cards. Another huge chunk of American families pay off their credit cards as soon as they get the bill and thus don't even owe anything to the credit card companies even though they have credit cards. Out of the remaining families only a very few owe $2,000 or more in credit card debt. Thus you can see that the "average American household" number is deceiving.
You may ask why the number is a skewed number. The answer is based on how they arrived at their average debt number. They got the average American debt number by taking $750 billion in credit card debt and dividing it by 84 million American households which is the number of households that have one or more credit cards. The resulting number is the average. This number however is inaccurate when compared to the truth about credit card debt.
The truth about credit card debt is that most Americans aren't even counted in the calculation. There are many American households that have no credit cards. In fact 23.8%, almost a quarter of American households, have no credit cards. That's a quarter of American households that weren't even factored into the calculation. Another huge portion of households pay off their credit cards in full. How many households? 31.2%! The truth about credit card debt is that 55% of Americans have none. We can further break down the remaining 45% of households.
Out of the remaining households only 29% owe more than $1,000 to credit card companies and only 21% owe $2,000 or more. If you consider that only 4% of households owe more than $10,000 and only 1% owe more than $21,000 then you will realize that most Americans owe very little in credit card debt. Most American households owe very little to nothing in credit card debt. The truth about American credit card debt is often hidden because of influences such as the media. - 30462
You may have heard the statistic that the average American has more than $8,000 in credit card debt. While this statistic is true, it only holds true if you're considering every American in the country. Most statistics don't include every American, only those that have credit cards. Thus our image of the average American family with a house and kids is skewed as not all of these "average" Americans have credit card debt. The problem is when they mention the word average in their statistics we are lead to believe that it's this type of family that we often think of when in fact they actually use the mean of the people who have credit card debt.
The truth is that 1 in 20 American households actually have more than $8,000 in credit card debt. This is because many families don't even have credit cards. Another huge chunk of American families pay off their credit cards as soon as they get the bill and thus don't even owe anything to the credit card companies even though they have credit cards. Out of the remaining families only a very few owe $2,000 or more in credit card debt. Thus you can see that the "average American household" number is deceiving.
You may ask why the number is a skewed number. The answer is based on how they arrived at their average debt number. They got the average American debt number by taking $750 billion in credit card debt and dividing it by 84 million American households which is the number of households that have one or more credit cards. The resulting number is the average. This number however is inaccurate when compared to the truth about credit card debt.
The truth about credit card debt is that most Americans aren't even counted in the calculation. There are many American households that have no credit cards. In fact 23.8%, almost a quarter of American households, have no credit cards. That's a quarter of American households that weren't even factored into the calculation. Another huge portion of households pay off their credit cards in full. How many households? 31.2%! The truth about credit card debt is that 55% of Americans have none. We can further break down the remaining 45% of households.
Out of the remaining households only 29% owe more than $1,000 to credit card companies and only 21% owe $2,000 or more. If you consider that only 4% of households owe more than $10,000 and only 1% owe more than $21,000 then you will realize that most Americans owe very little in credit card debt. Most American households owe very little to nothing in credit card debt. The truth about American credit card debt is often hidden because of influences such as the media. - 30462
About the Author:
Layla Vanderbilt is the content coordinator for a leading website that offers for debt consolidation advice and guidance.
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