During the holidays, it’s comforting to know that U.S. consumers really, truly believe. If not in Santa Claus, at least in their ability to pay for the Christmas presents and other items charged on their credit cards.
Americans now owe as much on those cards as in the quarter before the 2008 financial crisis began, according to a recent WalletHub study. Their balances rose to $747 billion at the end of this year’s third quarter, making up 6% of a total $12.35 trillion in U.S. household debt, a separate report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows.
