Alaska residents have highest credit card debt in nation

By e-wisdom news service
March 15th, 2013

Per borrower credit card debt highest in Alaska

Residents of Alaska had the highest average credit card debt in the country in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2012, TransUnion said in a recent report.

TransUnion conducts a quarterly analysis of the overall credit health of the nation, which includes looking at both per borrower credit card debt and also the frequency of credit card borrowers making late payments.

According to this analysis, the average amount of credit card debt per borrower in Q4 was $5,122. This represents a 2.53 percent increase from the $4,996 amount seen in the third quarter (Q3) of 2012 but a 1.58 percent decrease from the $5,204 amount seen a year earlier in Q4 2011.

In this latest data (Q4 2012), Alaska had the highest debt per borrower at $7,012, followed by Connecticut ($5,820), Colorado ($5,792) and North Carolina ($5,748).

Iowa residents have least amount of credit card debt per capita

Iowa topped the reverse chart, leading the nation with the lowest credit card debt per borrower – $4,048. Iowa was followed by North Dakota ($4,179), South Dakota ($4,303) and West Virginia ($4,412) to round out the top four states.

Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit, said in a statement that Q4 usually brings higher amounts of credit card debt due in part to holiday shopping.

But despite the increase in Q4, Becker said, average credit card balances in the country are still below historic norms.

Posted in: Consumer Credit Cards

Consumer Credit Cards News: This article was published on 3-15-2013 at 10:26 am.

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