Piling It On (9/10/99)
FULL STORY:
American consumers continue to rack up revolving debt like there's no
tomorrow! Since May 31, U.S. consumers have added $11.4 billion to revolving
credit according to preliminary figures released this week by the Federal
Reserve Board. Over the past twelve months consumer revolving debt has
expanded by $39.2 billion. During July, Americans piled on $5.9 billion for a 12.1%
annual rate of debt growth. The highest growth rate since last October.
Overall consumer credit is now growing 7.9% annually. According to the July FRB
figures, American consumers owe $583.7 billion in revolving credit. (Revolving
credit is mostly credit card debt.) At mid-year, bank credit card debt (VISA,
MasterCard, American Express, Discover) stood at $456.5 billion, according to
CardData (www.carddata.com). Overall, American
consumers were $1.354 trillion in debt at the end of July, exclusive of home
mortgages.