Credit Card Statistics 2026

Credit card balances rose by $21 billion and stood at $1.26 trillion, and auto loan balances increased by $28 billion to $1.71 trillion.

Revolving 1,033.5 1,192.6 1,298.9 1,297.0 1,324.3 1,301.7 1,312.7 1,324.3 1,338.2 1,354.4 1,354.4 1,357.2 1,352.4

Number of Credit Cards (Bankcards) 590.5 million 567.5 million 545.1 million 530.6 million

By year-end 2024, there were 608 million open general purpose card accounts compared to 185 million open private label accounts.

Total bankcard balances increased 4.4% YoY to $1.14 trillion, while lenders returned to a more growth-oriented strategy.

while revolving balance growth has slowed further, reaching 1.5 percent by the second quarter of 2026.

Bankcard originations rose 11.8% YoY to 20.6 million, marking a sixth consecutive quarter of growth and a Q1 record.

Total credit card balances increased 3.4 percent year over year, reaching a new high, with the growth rate slightly elevated but broadly consistent with the pattern observed over the past six quarters.

2026:2 0.07 0.00 0.14 0.02 2.66 3.82

2026:2 1.68 1.86 1.53 1.33 2.62 2.85

Credit Card Debt 6.93% 6.97%

Still, between 2022:Q3 and 2026:Q1, the percentage of credit card balances 90+ days delinquent rose from 7.6 percent to 12.8 percent

Consumer-level delinquencies edged higher in Q2 2026, with consumers 90+ DPD rising to 2.26%.

By year-end 2024, delinquency rates for both general purpose and private label cards were 3.0 and 3.8 percent, respectively.

rising from 16.1 percent in the second quarter of 2025 to 18.5 percent in the second quarter of 2026.

Card Services net charge-off rate of 2.91%

The third-quarter net write-off rate was 1.8 percent, down from 1.9 percent a year ago.

Accounts assessed interest 16.45 17.91 22.15 22.89 22.32 22.25 22.83 22.30 21.52 22.15 n.a. n.a. 22.36

Credit card plans All accounts 14.60 16.26 20.90 21.58 21.22 21.16 21.39 20.97 21.00 20.94 n.a. n.a. 21.19

The average purchase APR for general purpose cards is currently 24.1 percent

the average purchase APR for private label cards, historically higher in part because of looser underwriting practices, is even greater, currently at 31.3 percent.

Average APR for new general purpose accounts opened in 2024 was 27.5 percent, compared to 19.8 percent ten years ago.

In 2024, consumers were assessed $160 billion in interest charges, up from $105 billion in 2022.

Cardholders incurred $31.3 billion in fees in 2024, the highest nominal level observed in our data, up 23 percent from the 2022 level of $25.4 billion.

Issuers in the Y-14+ charged $17.0 billion in late fees in 2024, up 17 percent since 2022.

In 2025, 45 percent of credit card owners said they carried a balance at least once during the prior 12 months, down 12 percentage points over the past decade

The share of accounts making a full payment on card balances reached 37 percent, matching the pandemic-era peak in the second quarter of 2021

About 15 percent of general purpose cardholders made only the minimum payment, up from 13 percent in our last report.

For private label cardholders this figure climbed to 20 percent, up from 17 percent.

The share of accounts that revolve credit card balances returned to pre-pandemic levels of around 50 percent, up from 45 percent observed in late 2021.

median credit card debt increased $150 to $3,100 and mean credit card debt rose $1,300 to $8,000.

No disability 85 43 36 Overall 82 45 37

Family income Less than $25,000 46 52 24 $25,000–$49,999 71 57 41 $50,000–$99,999 88 50 44 $100,000 or more 97 37 36

In 2025, the 54 percent denial rate for Black applicants was more than twice the denial rate for White applicants.

In 2024, consumers earned $47.5 billion in credit card rewards, nearly double the rewards earned in 2020.

Over the last ten years, cash back cards have grown to become the most common general purpose credit card, increasing from 28 percent to 36 percent of accounts.

Notably, they made 16 payments with credit card, 15 with debit card and six with cash.

the share of consumers who most prefer credit cards has increased considerably, reaching 38% in 2025 and now closely trailing debit cards (40%).

More than 80% of participants reported using cash to make at least one payment in the prior 30 days, exceeding the share who reported using credit cards (71%) or debit cards (67%) during the same period.

Visa Credit Programs US $3,731 9.7% 9.7% $3,673 9.6% 9.6% 40,956

Credit card payments increased to 67.1 billion in 2024, up 16.2 billion from 2021.

Gross dollar volume growth of 7% on a local currency basis to $3.0 trillion.

Billed Business (Billions) FX-adjusted2 $454.0 $421.0

In 2024, cardholders disputed $9.8 billion in credit card charges, resulting in $5.9 billion in chargebacks.

In 2015, the average loss per case across all card fraud types was £410. In 2025, this had fallen to £158.

The effective rate on interest-charging credit cards increased slightly in September, to 21.71% from 21.55%.

Over the same period, the annual growth rate for credit card borrowing decreased slightly to 13.1%, from 13.3% in August

Number of payment cards in circulation at the end of second half of 2025 was 872.7 million, 7.3% higher compared with second half of 2024, averaging 2.5 payment cards per euro area inhabitant

The proportion of card payments increased from 34% in 2022 to 39% in 2024.

2025 saw an 11 per cent increase in card fraud case volumes, while losses were broadly unchanged from the previous year.

Balances increased across all major lending product categories, led by auto loans (7.9%), lines of credit (7.4%), personal loans (7.1%) and credit cards (5.1%).