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Debt Acceleration Wed, Sep 15, 2004 AddThis Social Bookmark Button

By Ashish Rajan, CardTrak.com

After five consecutive months of debt cutting, Americans have started piling on revolving credit at a pretty good clip. During July, consumers added $5.6 billion to revolving credit, mostly credit card debt, compared to less than $1.0 billion one-year ago. At an annualized rate, consumer revolving credit increased 9.0% during July. According to figures released yesterday by the Federal Reserve, at the end of July 2004 Americans owed $744.1 billion in revolving credit, compared to $726.1 billion for July 2003. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the second quarter was $672.1 billion, or roughly 90% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). At the end of July, Americans were $2039.9 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.

REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Jul 04Jun 04May 04Apr 04Mar 04Feb 04Jan04
GRWTH:9.0%-0.2-1.0-5.3-2.1-0.613.0
$OWED:$744.1738.5738.60740.9744.2750.4753.0
Dec 03Nov 03Oct 03Sep03Aug 03Jul03Jun03
GRWTH:3.3%4.94.16.83.41.42.7
$OWED:$734.1743.8740.5730.7729.1726.8726.1
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 9/08/04;
For complete historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com)