American consumers racked-up more than $5 billion in revolving debt during January according to figures released Friday afternoon by the Federal Reserve. Historically January is a time when Americans pay down revolving debt. However, this year, revolving credit and total consumer credit grew at its highest annual rate in more than one year. For January 1998 revolving credit card debt grew at annual rate of 4.3% versus this year's 12.2% annual rate. Last January revolving credit stood at $533.0 billion versus January 1999's $565.9 billion. Total credit card debt now stands at approximately $555 billion with $450 billion coming from general purpose cards such as VISA, MasterCard, Discover and American Express. Overall consumer credit is growing 13.5% annually according to the Federal Reserve Board. At the end of January, American consumers were $1.315 trillion in debt, exclusive of home mortgages. For more statistics on revolving credit visit www.cardflash.com or www.carddata.com