* * *

Note: Source: Bank of America’s Consumer Sentiment Report (2013)

Consumer Debt levels continue to rise

Credit Card Consumer debt at lowest levels since 2009

Source: Consumer Sentiment Report (2013)

Consumer credit levels have steadily increased in the past several years, with the exception of 2010, when it fell 9.9%. It has shown no sign of stopping, with credit card debt up an average of 25% year over year, from 2011-2013. In September여수안마 2013, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) announced that its consumer credit growth figures show that while a small percentage of Americans are at risk of falling behind, most of them have a lot less debt than they had a few years ago.

As shown in chart 1, Consumer credit declined for the first time since 2009 as the nation’s credit card debt grew by 25.9% in September 2013. That represented a 1.6% growth for credit cards and 6.4% increase for personal loans, a 6.5% decline in personal loans and 6.5% drop in credit card debt.

This decline in the overall credit market is especially notable in the area of personal loans. The total credit to this segment of consumers has dropped by an impressive 33% in the last 18 months and the number of accounts is down by a total of nearly 11% over the same period. Personal loans account for more than two-thirds of personal debt for Americans 18 to 59, but that is beginning to trend downward. In the September 201타이 마사지3 NCUA report, credit cards comprised 56.5% of loans, pe강릉출장안마rsonal loans 56.4% and non-credit card consumer debt 10.7%. In other words, the nation’s credit card debt has been shrinking for years.

While this trend is a good example of a good recovery for the U.S. credit market, it does not explain all of the consumer debt woes affecting consumers across the nation. As the consumer debt picture is slowly starting to clear up, it is more important that we remember that there were financial crises that affected a small segment of the population. To learn more about credit market failures and recover from them, I encourage you to listen to the podcast from the NCUA. In it, I discuss several crises including the 2008 financial collapse, the debt crisis of the early 1980s, the credit crunch of the early 1990s and even the financial downturn of the 2008 Recession.