United States consumers appear to be accruing unsustainable levels of credit card debt. According to a recent article on Seeking Alpha, consumers are not paying attention to the lessons they learned during the recent economic downturn, which our nation is still in the process of recovering from. It may be that consumers are beginning to feel optimistic about their financial futures — optimistic enough to spend money they don’t have. It may also be that this spending behavior will soon teach consumers a lesson they will regret.
In 2015, Americans built up $71 billion worth of credit card debt. We also broke $900 billion in credit card debt totals, a figure we had not reached since the economic downturn. Furthermore, we are on schedule to breach $1 trillion. These figures are so massive that most people cannot begin to understand how large they really are.
It appears that credit card debt levels are not going to be shrinking anytime soon. The fact is, people do not have a very long term memory when it comes to financial issues. Once things start looking rosy financially, the spending ramps up and this could be a very big problem if we are hit by another economic recession. It could also be a big problem on an individual level for those who suffer a sudden calamity that causes them to lose their jobs or causes them to suffer a severe financial setback.
For New Jersey residents suffering from credit card debt problems, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel through bankruptcy proceedings. Bankruptcy can be an excellent strategy for resolving toxic credit card debt that is hard to shake because of current financial circumstances.
Source: Seeking Alpha, “Credit Card Debt Levels Reaching Unsustainable Levels, Says CardHub CEO,” March 31, 2016
