Believe it or not consumers are piling on credit card debt at a faster clip this year than 2000. During April, American consumers added $9.2 billion to total revolving debt compared to $7.0 billion for April 2000. This means consumers are racking up debt at a 16% annual rate this year compared to 13.5% one year ago. The sharp rise in credit card debt this year has been mostly driven by the decline in non-revolvers (consumers who pay-off each month). Since the first of this year, American consumers have piled on $34 billion in revolving credit, mostly credit card debt. Total U.S. revolving consumer credit now stands at $697.4 billion which includes about $670 billion in credit card debt. Overall, consumer credit is growing at a 10.75% annual rate according to the Federal Reserve. At the end of April, American consumers were $1.584 trillion in debt, exclusive of home mortgages.

         REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL 
                ($billions)

         Apr01  Mar01  Feb01  Jan01  Apr00 
%GRWTH:  16.0%  11.9   20.8   11.6   13.5 
$OWED:  $697.4  688.2  681.4  670.3  622.5 

Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 06/07/01;