Rising prices and higher interest rates are trapping many Americans in expensive credit card debt, a new report states.
According to a survey released Thursday by Bankrate, a financial analytics firm, 37 percent of American credit card holders have maxed out or nearly maxed out on their card limits since the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in March 2022.
“That’s probably higher than you would expect to see in an economy that has low and stable inflation,” Bankrate analyst Sarah Foster told The Epoch Times.
“I think this is just a sign that consumers are feeling some distress, and the nationwide aggregate numbers just might be masking what’s underneath the hood.”
According to the survey, more than half of the respondents who had gone deep into credit card debt blamed inflation, which has reduced the value of the U.S. dollar by more than 20 percent since 2021 and left many Americans struggling to afford basic necessities. The second reason, cited by 38 percent of respondents, was unexpected emergency expenses. […]
— Read More: www.theepochtimes.com
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