Credit card bills are coming due after a record holiday shopping season
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There are a few methods experts say can help borrowers tackle their debt at a time of steep interest rates.
After a season of record holiday spending, here come the bills to pay for it all.
Retail sales hit a record $994.1 billion during this past holiday season, which ran from Nov. 1 to Dec. 31, according to the National Retail Federation. And a big chunk of that spending was on borrowed money. According to LendingTree, 36% of Americans took on holiday debt in 2024, averaging $1,181 per shopper for the season. That’s around 15% higher than the $1,028 on average the year before, but less than 2022’s $1,549 average.
“Prices are still really high and maybe having a bigger effect on people’s budgets and people’s holiday shopping and other sorts of spending than maybe people thought it would,” said Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree.
Many people who wound up in debt this holiday season said it will take them a while to pay it off. LendingTree found 21% of people who borrowed expect they’ll be paying it down for at least five months, and another 20% say they’re only making minimum payments — a recipe for racking up interest fees and dramatically extending how long it takes to zero out a balance.
U.S. household debt has climbed to record heights in recent years, reaching $17.94 trillion as of the third quarter of 2024, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It said consumers owed a record $1.17 trillion in credit card debt.
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