9/15/2011 - U.S. Credit Card Debt Grows Despite Desire To Control Personal Finances

Source: Huffington Post

Consumers would like to spend less, but they are falling further into credit card debt.
Two-thirds of Americans say that the financial crisis has fundamentally changed their view of debt, making them less likely to borrow or spend, according to a new report by Absolute Strategy Research.
A third of respondents to the survey said they plan to pay down their debt in the coming year, and another third said they plan not to take on any new debt.


But even as consumers have become more debt-averse, they have plunged more into debt to pay for essentials. Indeed, credit card debt has been growing at an increasingly higher rate. The rate of increase for credit card debt has risen two-thirds compared to the same period last year, and it has increased 368 percent since two years ago.


Earlier in 2011, Americans started to climb out of the vicious cycle of borrowing and spending, as credit card debt stopped increasing after two consecutive years, but theyseem to be falling back into more credit card debt, even as they seem to want to borrow and spend less.


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