Consumers lean on store credit cards to offset financial burden

Consumers are running credit debt balances to a combined half a billion dollars. This according to the three(s) credit trade bureaus quarterly reports. The increase is lead by Gen Z and Gen X generations.

According to TransUnion’s Quarterly Credit Industry Insights Report, bankcard balances rose 19% during the third quarter from a year ago, reaching a record $866 billion. This was driven heavily by a growth in Gen Z and Millennial borrowers whose balances increased 72% and 32%, respectively, according to the report. 

At the same time, private label total and average credit lines have reached record highs as well as the average number of accounts per consumer, according to the report, the consumer credit reporting agency said. 

This increase is caused by the myriad of economic challenges facing consumers from “this environment of high inflation, and secondarily by the higher interest rates that the Federal Reserve is implementing to tamp it down,” Michele Raneri, vice president of US research and consulting at TransUnion, said in a statement. Originally posted by NY Post