1. The total U.S. outstanding revolving debt was $870.4 billion as of April, 2014.
2. The
average value of a credit card transaction in the U.S. is $94.
3. 37
percent of small-businesses say their businesses have relied on credit cards to
meet capital needs in the 12 months.
4. 80
percent of business cards included an “any time” clause which gives the bank
issuers the right to change account terms at any time with little or no notice
and the cardholder cannot opt out.
5. Consumers
are holding fewer credit cards. The
average number of credit cards held by cardholders at the end of 2009 was
3.7. The average number of credit cards
consumers had in 2012 was 1.96.
6. 60
percent of college seniors have a credit card.
7. The
most popular credit cards are MasterCard and Visa, by far. MasterCard has 180
million cards in the United States and 551 million cards in the rest of the
world. Visa has 278 million cards in the
United States and 522 million cards in the rest of the world.
8. 86
percent of low and middle-income households who incurred expenses resulting
from unemployment took on credit card debt as a result.
9. The
states with the highest amount of average credit card debt are Alaska ($7,045),
Colorado ($5,728), North Carolina ($5,619) and Connecticut ($5,532). The states with the lowest amount of average
credit card debt are Iowa ($3,874), North Dakota ($4,006), Wisconsin ($4,252)
and South Dakota ($4,257).
10. MasterCard
and Visa are also the biggest credit cards by volume, with U.S. $534 billion and
$981 billion in purchases in 2012, respectively.
11. Nearly
half of low- and middle-income households carried debt from out of pocket
medical expenses on their credit cards.
12. The
charge-off rate on credit cards from top 100 banks was 3.87 percent as of 2013.
13. 33
percent of adults do not pay all of their bills on time as of 2012, up from 28
percent in 2011.
14. The
average Annual Percentage Rate on credit card with a balance on it was 13.14 as
of February 2014.
15. The
national average FICO score was 646 and the national median FICO score was 723
as of July 2013.
16. 85
percent of college students don’t know their credit score
17. The
first national general-use credit card that allowed balances to be paid over
time was the BankAmericard, issued in 1958.
In 1977 they changed their name to Visa.
19. Unauthorized
credit card transactions made up 0.037 percent, or 37 out of every 1,000, credit
card transactions in 2012.
20. Law
enforcement agencies received more than 1.8 million financial complaints in
2011: 55 percent were fraud complaints; 15 percent were identity theft
complaints; and 30 percent other types of complaints.
***
Thanks to CreditCards.com, StatisticBrain, and BankRate.com for the data!
