by First Rate Debt Solutions
18. August 2008 15:59
We all love credit cards. The ease, convenience, and to a certain extent the protection it provides in making a purchase. But with the good can also come the bad if you’re not careful. It’s far too easy to end up with too many cards and making too many purchases. Here are some revealing facts about credit card spending and habits in the United States.
There are roughly 1.2 billion credit cards in use in the United States.
About 24 percent of all personal expenditures in this country are made with credit and debit cards.
A typical credit card purchase ends up costing 112 percent more than if cash were used.
A $1,000 charge on an average credit card will take almost 22 years to pay, and will cost more than $2,300 in interest ($3,300 total) -- if only 2 percent minimum payments are made.
About 60 percent of active credit card accounts are not paid off monthly.
This may all be getting worse for Americans as some credit card companies are actually raising interest rates to many of their customers increasing the minimum payments due each month and extending the time it will take to pay off the debt.
If any of this sounds familiar to you and you might be struggling to pay off some of this debt, there are options available. No one intends to get themselves into debt and certainly not to the extent that they cannot pay it off in a reasonable time, but it does happen. If you want to get out of debt and get your finances back on track, debt settlement can help.
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