Credit Card Data Tells Mixed Story

While the average debt on credit cards in December decreased by 4 percent compared with the same month a year before, Americans still carried an average of $4,284 on credit card statements in December 2010, according to data released this week by the credit monitoring company Experian, the New York Times reported today. The most recent consumer credit report from the Federal Reserve showed that revolving credit, which is mostly credit card debt, increased by 3.5 percent in December at an annual rate, the first such increase in 27 months. Card spending (including credit, debit and electronic benefit-transfer cars) was up 6.5 percent in December compared with spending at the same stores a year earlier, according to First Data, which processes merchant transactions.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/business/economy/02debt.html

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