If you have credit card statistics that you'd like to share, or if you
have a question, comment or concern about what has or hasn't been
included on the page, please e-mail us at .
Credit card statistics road map
|
|
|---|---|
| Below is a list of the various categories of statistics on this page. Click the link for more information. | |
Credit cards
Bankruptcy and delinquency Business credit cards Credit scores, reports Consumer debt Fees |
Demographics
History Identity theft, fraud Interest rates/APRs Issuers/networks Online use Payment trends Prepaid cards Rewards Total purchases/transactions |
- Average credit card debt per household with credit card debt: $15,799*
- 609.8 million credit cards held by U.S. consumers. (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
- Average number of credit cards held by cardholders: 3.5, as of yearend 2008 (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
- Average APR on new credit card offer: 14.89 percent
- Average APR on credit card with a balance on it: 13.10 percent, as of May 2011 (Source: Federal Reserve's G.19 report on consumer credit, released July 2011)
- Total U.S. revolving debt (98 percent of which is made up of credit card debt): $793.1 billion, as of May 2011
- Total U.S. consumer debt: $2.43 trillion, as of May 2011
- U.S. credit card 30-day delinquency rate: 3.3 percent.
Total cards in circulation in U.S.
(Through year-end 2010, unless otherwise noted)
- American Express credit: 48.9 million (Source: AmericanExpress.com)
- MasterCard credit: 171 million (Source: MasterCard)
- MasterCard debit: 123 million (Source: MasterCard)
- Visa credit: 269 million, as of Sept. 30, 2010 (Source: Visa)
- Visa debit: 397 million, as of Sept. 30, 2010 (Source: Visa)
- Discover cards: Unavailable
- 176.8 million credit cardholders in 2008 (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
- Some 29 percent of poll respondents reported that they do not have a credit card. That was a more than 10 percent jump from the number of respondents who reported having no credit cards in June 2009. (Source: Scientific poll for CreditCards.com, conducted Feb. 5-7, 2010)
- The average credit cardholder has 3.5 credit cards. Including both cardholders and non-cardholders, the average consumer has 2.7 cards each. (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
- The average age at which a U.S. consumer under the age of 35 first adopted a credit card is 20.8 years. The average age of credit card adoption for a consumer over the age of 65 is 40.6 years. (Source: "The 2008 Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston)
- Eighty percent of consumers currently own a debit card, compared to 78 percent who own a credit card and 17 who own a prepaid card. (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
- About 60 percent of consumers have a rewards credit card. (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
- About 21 percent of consumer currently have a contactless debit card, while 26 percent have a contactless credit card. (Source: "The Survey of Consumer Payment Choice," Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, January 2010)
- In the fourth quarter of 2008, consumers over 60 had an average of 5.6 open bankcard and retail accounts. Overall, consumers had an average of 5.4 cards. A year before, those over 60 had 6.1 open cards and consumers overall had 5.5. In 2006, those over 60 had 6.2 open cards and consumers overall had 5.5. (Source: Experian marketing insight snapshot, March 2009)
- According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were 159 million credit cardholders in the United States in 2000, 173 million in 2006, and that number is projected to grow to 181 million Americans by 2010. (Source: Census Bureau)
- In 2006, the United States Census Bureau determined that there were nearly 1.5 billion credit cards in use in the U.S. A stack of all those credit cards would reach more than 70 miles into space -- and be almost as tall as 13 Mount Everests. (Source: NY Times, Feb. 23, 2009)
- As of yearend 2009, there were 270 million Visa credit cards and 382 million Visa debit cards in circulation in the United States. (Source: Visa.com)
- As of yearend 2009, there were 203 million MasterCard credit cards and 125 million MasterCard debit cards in circulation in the United States. (Source: MasterCard.com)
- As of yearend 2009, there were 48.9 million American Express credit cards in circulation in the United States. (Source: AmericanExpress.com)
- As of yearend 2009, there were 54.4 million Discover credit cards in circulation in the United States. (Source: Discover.com)
- Eighty-four percent of the student population overall have credit cards, an increase of approximately 11 percent since the fall of 2004. (Source: Sallie Mae, "How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards," April 2009)
- Only 2 percent of undergraduates had no credit history. (Source: Sallie Mae, "How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards," April 2009)
- Half of college undergraduates had four or more credit cards in 2008. That's up from 43 percent in 2004 and just 32 percent in 2000. (Source: Sallie Mae, "How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards," April 2009)
- Since 2004, students who arrived on campus as freshmen with a credit card already in-hand have increased from 23 percent to 39 percent. (Source: Sallie Mae, "How Undergraduate Students Use Credit Cards," April 2009)
- Two-thirds of survey respondents said they would consider switching their primary credit card if a better feature were offered. (Source: ComScore, September 2008)
- 76 percent of undergraduates have credit cards, and the average undergrad has $2,200 in credit card. Additionally, they will amass almost $20,000 in student debt. (Source: Nellie Mae, "Undergraduate Students and Credit Cards in 2004: An Analysis of Usage Rates and Trends")
- 41 percent of college students have a credit card. Of the students with cards, about 65 percent pay their bills in full every month, which is higher than the general adult population. (Source: Student Monitor annual financial services study, 2008)
- Approximately 74.9 percent of the U.S. families surveyed in 2004 had credit cards, and 58 percent of those families carried a balance. In 2001, 76.2 percent of families had credit cards, and 55 percent of those families carried a balance. (Source: Federal Reserve Bulletin, February 2006)
- About a quarter have no credit cards, and an additional 30 percent or so pay off their balances every month. (Source: Federal Reserve Board survey of consumer finances, 2004)
- On average, today's consumer has a total of 13 credit obligations on record at a credit bureau. These include credit cards (such as department store charge cards, gas cards, and bank cards) and installment loans (auto loans, mortgage loans, student loans, etc.). Not included are savings and checking accounts (typically not reported to a credit bureau). Of these 13 credit obligations, nine are likely to be credit cards and four are likely to be installment loans. (Source: myfico.com)
- The average consumer's oldest obligation is 14 years old, indicating that he or she has been managing credit for some time. In fact, one out of four consumers had credit histories of 20 years or longer. Only one in 20 consumers had credit histories shorter than two years. (Source: myfico.com)
- Approximately 51 percent of the U.S. population has at least two credit cards. (Source: Experian national score index study, February 2007)
- At about 20 percent, New Hampshire and New Jersey have the largest concentration of consumers with 10 or more credit cards. (Source: Experian national score index study, February 2007)
- Consumers carry more than 1 billion Visa cards worldwide. More than 450 million of those cards are in the United States. (Source: Visa USA internal statistics, 4th quarter 2006)
- About 80 million contactless payment cards are expected to be issued through 2009, according to Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. (Source: Contactless News, "Contactless Payments: What's Next?" August 2009)
- Of families with credit cards in 2007, 96.1 percent had bank cards, up less than 1 percent from 2004. (Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, February 2009)
- Of families with credit cards in 2007, 11.9 percent held gas cards, and that's down more than 5 percent from 2004. (Source: Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances, February 2009)
- Penalty fees from credit cards will add up to about $20.5 billion in 2009, according to R. K. Hammer, a consultant to the credit card industry. (Source: New York Times, September 2009)
- From 1989 to 2004, the percentage of cardholders incurring fees due to late payments of 60 days or more increased from 4.8 percent to 8.0 percent. (Source: Demos.org, "Borrowing To Make Ends Meet," November 2007)
- One-fourth of the students surveyed in US PIRG's 2008 Campus Credit Card Trap report said that they have paid a late fee, and 15 percent have paid an "over the limit" fee. (Source: U.S. PIRG, "Campus Credit Card Trap")
- In the first 3 months of 2009, 27 percent of card offers carried an annual fee, up from 18 percent in 2008, according to the financial research firm Tower Group. (Source: ConsumerReports.org Money Blog, August 2009)
- Thirty-one of the 39 credit cards did not charge an annual fee. That marked a larger number of credit cards with no annual fee than in 2008, when 35 of 41cards had no annual fee. The cost of those fees ranged from $18 to $150. (Source: Consumer Action credit card survey, July 2009)
- The average late fee was found to have risen to $28.19, way up from $25.90 in 2008. Consumer Action reported that late fees reached up to $39 per incident. (Source: Consumer Action credit card survey, July 2009)
- 92 percent of cards included a fee for exceeding the credit limit, including 100 percent of all student cards. The amount of the overlimit fee is $39 on most accounts. (Source: Pew Safe Credit Cards Project, March 2009)
- 64 percent of respondents said having "no annual fee" was an important reason why they chose the credit card they did the last time they got a new card. (Source: Aite Group survey, January 2008)
- 95 percent of surveyed issuers have over-limit fees. The average over-limit fee, among institutions with over-limit fees, is $29.13. (Source: Consumer Action credit card survey, July 2008.)
- 36 percent of respondents said they didn't know the interest rate on the card they use most often. (Source: FINRA Investor Education Foundation, "Financial Capability in the United States," December 2009)
- The national average default rate as January 2010 stood at 27.88 percent and the mean default rate is 28.99 percent. (Source: CreditCards.com survey, January 2010)
- Slightly more than half of Americans -- 51 percent -- said that in the past 12 months, they carried over a balance and was charged interest on a credit card. (Source: "Financial Capability in the United States," FINRA Investor Education Foundation, December 2009)
- 93 percent of cards allowed the issuer to raise any interest rate at any time by changing the account agreement. (Source: Pew Safe Credit Cards Project, March 2009)
- Only eight percent of cards with penalty rate conditions offered to restore the original rate terms when payments are made on-time, usually after 12 months. (Source: Pew Safe Credit Cards Project, March 2009)
- 72 percent of cards included offers of low promotional rates which issuers could revoke after a single late payment. (Source: Pew Safe Credit Cards Project, March 2009)
- Among 39 credit cards Consumer Action looked at from 22 financial institutions, the average interest rate for purchases was 12.83 percent. That's a drop of more half a point from the 2008 survey results. Interest rates on purchases ranged from 4.25 percent to 22.99 percent, with the fixed rate credit cards averaging an interest rate of 10.03 percent and the variable rate credit cards averaging 13.20 percent. (Source: Consumer Action credit card survey, July 2009)
- Average APR on new credit card offer: 14.10 percent (Source: CreditCards.com Weekly Rate Report, May 2010.)
- Average APR on credit card with a balance on it: 14.67 percent, as of February, 2010 (Source: Federal Reserve's G.19 report on consumer credit, May 2010)
