Comparing the Best 2026 Debt Relief Plans

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Americans have a record quantity of credit card debt $1.252 trillion, to be precise. This credit card debt stats page tracks Americans' credit card use each month.

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While credit card debt tends to rise year over year, it typically falls from Q4 of one year to Q1 of the next. Even with this quarter's decrease, credit card balances have risen by $482 billion given that Q1 2021, when credit card debt bottomed out at $770 billion throughout the pandemic.

Americans' charge card financial obligation is $325 billion greater than the pre-pandemic record embeded in Q4 2019, when balances stood at $927 billion. (That's a 35% boost.) Credit card balances have actually historically rebounded after first-quarter declines, though future borrowing trends will depend upon elements consisting of rate of interest, inflation and wider economic conditions.

Can Debt Management Help Your Credit Future?

Charge card debt rose steadily up until the monetary crisis, then declined from $866 billion in Q4 2008 to $660 billion in Q1 2013 before resuming its upward trajectory. When the pandemic took hold in 2020, credit card balances plunged again from $927 billion in Q4 2019 to $770 billion in Q1 2021.

Credit cardholders in Connecticut have the highest average charge card financial obligation of any state, according to LendingTree data, while those in Mississippi have the most affordable. Source: LendingTree analysis of the anonymized credit reports of more than 400,000 LendingTree users in the 3rd quarter of 2025 and more than 410,000 in Q3 2024.

Joint accounts were divided in half to show shared responsibility in between the account holders. LendingTree experts evaluated anonymized credit report data from Q3 2025 for more than 400,000 LendingTree users to calculate these averages and develop a list of states with the most debt. The analysis was likewise compared with Q3 2024 data from more than 410,000 reports.

Eleven states had average balances of at least $9,000. Washington has the fastest-growing card debt in the duration evaluated.

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Three other states saw double-digit boosts, including South Dakota (up 11.7%), Nebraska (up 11.3%) and Wisconsin (up 10.2%). On The Other Hand, New Mexico saw the largest year-over-year reduction in debt, with its homeowners' debt falling 10.3% from $6,543 to $5,871. In all, seven states saw credit card balances decrease in the past year.

Fewer than half of adult credit cardholders (45%) carried a balance on a charge card for a minimum of one month in the past year, according to a May 2026 Federal Reserve study utilizing 2025 data. Paying a credit card balance completely each month is the most reliable method to prevent interest charges and keep financial obligation from building up.

For all credit cards, the average APR in Q2 2026 was 20.94%. For cards accumulating interest, the average in Q2 2026 was 22.15%. For new credit card offers, the average is 23.79%. Average APR, current card accounts: 20.94% Typical APR, accounts that accumulate interest: 22.15% Average APR, brand-new credit card uses: 23.79% The Federal Reserve's G. 19 consumer credit report revealed that the typical APRs for cards accruing interest increased to 22.15% in Q2 2026, up from 21.52% in Q1 2026.

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Customers opening a new charge card account may deal with higher rates than the averages for existing accounts. The most recent LendingTree data on charge card APRs shows that the typical APR with a new charge card deal is 23.79%, with the average card offering an APR series of 20.18% to 27.41%.

The 23.79% average was the same for the second straight month and third in 4. It's the very first time considering that LendingTree started tracking card rates month-to-month that they went the same in back-to-back months. That stability is likely the outcome of the Fed leaving rates unchanged throughout 2026. When the Fed raises or lowers rates, many credit card APRs in the U.S.No matter when the Fed acts next, any movement is likely to be small, indicating credit card APRs would likely remain raised by historical standards. And as the chart below shows, APRs can differ considerably by card type. Source: LendingTree evaluation of publicly available conditions for about 220 U.S.Of course, your best relocation is to make those interest rates a moot point by paying your card debt in full, but that's often much easier said than done. Just 2.92% of Americans' impressive charge card balances were at least thirty days overdue in the first quarter of 2026. According to the most current delinquency information from the Fed, the 30-day delinquency rate the share of exceptional credit card balances that were at least one month overdue dipped to 2.92% in the very first quarter of 2026, the seventh straight quarterly decline.