U.S. credit card debt reaches $1.08 trillion: New York Fed

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York's Household Debt and Credit report shows Americans owe approximately $1.08 trillion in credit card debt. This represents a $154 billion year-over-year increase, the largest annual jump since 1999. The report also found rising delinquencies across age groups, specifically among millennials aged 30-39.

Yahoo Finance's Rachelle Akuffo and Jared Blikre break down all the details.

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Video Transcript

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JARED BLIKRE: A new report on household debt from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York is now saying that Americans collectively owe over $1 trillion on their credit cards with balances spiking by $154 billion year over year. Now it's the largest increase since 1999. The biggest culprit of the debt, the Federal Reserve's string of 11 rate hikes to combat inflation, including four hikes that occurred in 2023.

And this has a compounding impact on credit card rates, which are now more than 20% reaching an all time high. And Additionally, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York also saying that credit card delinquencies have risen across the board, particularly among millennials, those between the ages of 30 and 39 who student loan debt. As if they didn't have enough to deal with, Jared.

JARED BLIKRE: Yeah, yeah, I'm looking at that chart right there. It is-- delinquencies, we hear about them, but that has barely budged at least if I'm looking at mortgage rates, and also, we're seeing a little bit of a tick up in student loans, a little bit of an inflection in credit cards, but for the most part, you look at 2008 on that chart, that was way up there, so a long ways from those levels that we've seen.