Debt rose to more than $1 trillion in the second quarter, a report found — a sign of financial strain for some, even before student loan payments resume.
Americans’ credit card balances rose briskly in the second quarter, hitting a sobering milestone of more than $1 trillion, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported this month.
Credit cards are the most prevalent type of household debt, New York Fed researchers wrote in a blog post, and saw the biggest increase of all debt types. More than two-thirds of Americans had a credit card in the second quarter, up from 59 percent roughly a decade earlier, the researchers found. And, they noted, card balances were more than 16 percent higher in the second three months of this year compared with a year earlier.
In case anyone is looking to get out of debt, consider the snowball or avalanche method for paying off debt, which will help you decide which order to pay off your debts.
Any debt repayment strategy will benefit greatly from budgeting, so find a method that works for you. This is a massive category and needs to be very personal since it's all about behavior, so what works for me probably won't work for you.
At least in the US, student loan payments will restart soon, so now is the perfect time to start that budget and start taking control of your debt.