Forty-nine percent of credit card holders in the U.S. are carrying debt from month to month, up from 46% percent last year, CNBC reported Jan. 8.
Five things to know:
1. Credit card balances now total a record $1.08 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's latest quarterly report.
2. Fifty-six million Americans have been in credit card debt for at least a year.
3. Americans' credit card balances have "skyrocketed 40%" over the past two years, Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate, told CNBC. He said that "while Americans are managing their credit card debt pretty well, all things considered, we are seeing pockets of trouble at the household level."
4. The average credit card interest rate is now more than 20%, which is an all-time high.
5. Bankrate found that at 20.74% APR, if a person made minimum payments toward the average credit balance — $6,088, according to TransUnion — it would take more than 17 years to pay off the debt and cost more than $9,072 in interest.