Comparing the Top 2026 Debt Relief Plans

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Read our editorial guidelines here. Americans have a record quantity of charge card debt $1.252 trillion, to be precise. This charge card financial obligation stats page tracks Americans' credit card use each month. We update this page regularly, examining how much debt customers hold, how typically they bring balances from month to month, how regularly they pay their charge card expenses late and other key trends.

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While charge card debt tends to increase year over year, it generally falls from Q4 of one year to Q1 of the next. The last time we saw card financial obligation boost in Q1 remained in 2001. (The only time it didn't fall in Q1 since then was 2023, when it remained unchanged.) Even with this quarter's decline, credit card balances have risen by $482 billion given that Q1 2021, when credit card debt bottomed out at $770 billion during the pandemic.

Americans' credit card financial obligation is $325 billion greater than the pre-pandemic record embeded in Q4 2019, when balances stood at $927 billion. (That's a 35% boost.) Credit card balances have actually historically rebounded after first-quarter decreases, though future borrowing trends will depend upon elements including rate of interest, inflation and more comprehensive economic conditions.

How to Reduce Credit Card Debt in 2026

Credit card debt increased gradually until the financial crisis, then decreased from $866 billion in Q4 2008 to $660 billion in Q1 2013 before resuming its upward trajectory. Then, when the pandemic took hold in 2020, credit card balances plunged once again from $927 billion in Q4 2019 to $770 billion in Q1 2021.

Credit cardholders in Connecticut have the greatest typical credit card financial obligation of any state, according to LendingTree data, while those in Mississippi have the least expensive. Source: LendingTree analysis of the anonymized credit reports of more than 400,000 LendingTree users in the third quarter of 2025 and more than 410,000 in Q3 2024.

Joint accounts were divided in half to reflect shared obligation in between the account holders. LendingTree experts reviewed anonymized credit report data from Q3 2025 for more than 400,000 LendingTree users to determine these averages and produce a list of states with the most debt. The analysis was also compared to Q3 2024 data from more than 410,000 reports.

Eleven states had average balances of at least $9,000. Washington has the fastest-growing card financial obligation in the duration analyzed.

Effective Debt Management Services to Eliminate Debt

3 other states saw double-digit increases, including South Dakota (up 11.7%), Nebraska (up 11.3%) and Wisconsin (up 10.2%). Meanwhile, New Mexico saw the biggest year-over-year decrease in financial obligation, with its residents' financial obligation falling 10.3% from $6,543 to $5,871. In all, 7 states saw charge card balances decrease in the previous year.

Fewer than half of adult credit cardholders (45%) carried a balance on a charge card for at least one month in the previous year, according to a May 2026 Federal Reserve research study using 2025 information. Paying a credit card balance in full monthly is the most reliable way to prevent interest charges and keep debt from building up.

For cards accumulating interest, the average in Q2 2026 was 22.15%. For new credit card offers, the average is 23.79%.

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Consumers opening a new charge card account might face greater rates than the averages for existing accounts. The current LendingTree data on credit card APRs shows that the average APR with a new credit card deal is 23.79%, with the typical card offering an APR series of 20.18% to 27.41%.

When the Fed raises or lowers rates, many credit card APRs in the U.S.No matter when the Fed acts next, any movement is likely to be small, meaning credit card APRs would likely remain elevated by historical standards. Just 2.92% of Americans' exceptional credit card balances were at least 30 days delinquent in the first quarter of 2026., the 30-day delinquency rate the share of outstanding credit card balances that were at least 30 days past due dipped to 2.92% in the first quarter of 2026, the seventh straight quarterly decline.