Credit Card Industry Statistics 2026: Debt, Rates and Network Volume

US credit card balances reached $1.26 trillion in Q2 2026 after rising by $21 billion in the quarter, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Card debt kept climbing even as total household debt fell by $13 billion to $18.8 trillion. The Federal Reserve’s seasonally adjusted card charge-off rate at all banks has fallen 0.75 points since the end of 2024. That gap between growing balances and easing losses runs through the credit card industry statistics below.

The data combines New York Fed, Federal Reserve Board, CFPB and Philadelphia Fed releases with June-quarter 2026 filings from Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Capital One and JPMorgan Chase, including four delinquency measures that disagree.

Key Takeaways

• The NY Fed’s stock measure puts 12.8% of card balances 90+ days delinquent as of 2026:Q1, up from 7.6% in 2022:Q3, while the large-bank share of card balances 30+ days past due was 3.3% in Q1 2026, per the Philadelphia Fed.
• Mastercard’s US credit and charge volume reached $458 billion in Q2 2026, against $400 billion on US debit, a gap of $58 billion in credit’s favor.
• Outside the US, Mastercard debit volume of $1,150 billion outran credit and charge volume of $874 billion.
• The share of large-bank card accounts paying in full reached an all-time series high in Q1 2026, while utilization fell to 19.1%, its lowest level in three years.
• The APR on bank card accounts assessed interest was 5.7 points higher in Q2 2026 than in 2021, based on Federal Reserve G.19 data.
• Consumers were assessed $160 billion in interest charges in 2024 and paid $31.3 billion in fees, per the CFPB.

Editor’s Choice

• US credit card balances: $1.26 trillion at the end of Q2 2026.
• Revolving consumer credit: $1,357.2 billion outstanding in July 2026.
• Visa processed transactions: 71.7 billion in the three months ended June 30, 2026.
• American Express billed business: $455.8 billion in Q2 2026.
• Capital One credit card loans: $275.4 billion at period end in Q2 2026.
• Mastercard cards issued: 3.7 billion Mastercard and Maestro-branded cards as of June 30, 2026.

Credit Card Industry Statistics: US Card Debt

• Credit card balances increased by $21 billion (1.7%) in Q2 2026, the same 1.7% pace as auto loan balances.
• Aggregate limits on credit cards rose by $85 billion (1.1%) in the first quarter.
• Transition into early delinquency was largely steady for credit cards in Q2 2026, per the New York Fed.
• The annualized flow of card balances into serious delinquency was 6.97% in Q2 2026, just 0.04 points above a year earlier.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Household Debt and Credit Report Q2 2026

Card balances were one of four categories that grew in the quarter, and the credit card debt breakdown splits those balances by borrower group.

About This Data

Compiled from 18 sources, all primary: Federal Reserve Board and regional Federal Reserve Bank releases, a CFPB report to Congress, a Senate office release, and company earnings filings. The data covers periods from the mid-2010s through July 2026. Only official or first-party data qualified. Figures are updated when sources publish new editions.

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What is the average household debt in the United States?

Total US household debt stood at $18.8 trillion in Q2 2026, according to the New York Fed, which reports aggregate balances rather than a per-household average. The average monthly credit card balance per cardholder increased to about $5,300 in 2024, per the CFPB. The broader US household debt figures break the total down further.

Revolving Consumer Credit by Year

• Revolving credit increased at an annual rate of 2.5% in July 2026, while nonrevolving credit increased at 4.8%.
• Total consumer credit increased at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.2% in July, per the Federal Reserve’s G.19 consumer credit release.
• Revolving balances rose about 15.4% in 2022 alone, the largest one-year gain in the table below.
• Revolving credit has grown about 31.3% from the end of 2021 to July 2026.

Note: The Fed’s published 2024 growth rate for revolving credit was 4.1% even though the year-end level above dipped slightly, so growth computed from these levels, such as the 31.3% figure, can differ from the Fed’s rates.

Growth has cooled since the post-pandemic surge.

Recent Developments

• September 16, 2026: The Federal Reserve raised the federal funds target range by a quarter point to 3-3/4 to 4%. Variable card APRs track the prime rate, so the hike flows through to revolvers.
• September 8, 2026: The Federal Reserve’s G.19 release showed revolving credit increasing at an annual rate of 2.5% in July.
• August 11, 2026: The New York Fed’s Joelle Scally said: “Still, new delinquencies for auto loans and credit cards remain at elevated levels, a trend we’ll continue to monitor.”
• July 30, 2026: Mastercard reported gross dollar volume growth of 8% on a local currency basis to $2.9 trillion for the second quarter.
• July 28, 2026: Visa reported fiscal third quarter net revenue of $11.6 billion, an increase of 14%, with payments volume up 10% in constant dollars.
• July 24, 2026: American Express raised its FY 2026 revenue growth guidance to 10% after Card Member spending grew 9% in Q2 2026.

Credit Card Interest Rate Statistics

• The average APR reached 25.2% for general purpose cards and 31.3% for private label cards in 2024, the highest levels since at least 2015, per the CFPB.
• The average APR for new general-purpose accounts opened in 2024 was 27.5%, compared with 19.8% ten years earlier.
• The average interest rate on general-purpose cards at large banks was 24.0% in Q1 2026, up from a historical average of 18.2% before the 2022 rate hike cycle.
• President Donald Trump called for a 10% cap on credit card interest rates, and Senator Hawley urged Congress to pass his bipartisan bill to cap these rates.
• Hawley and Senator Bernie Sanders introduced bipartisan legislation in February 2025 to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for five years.

The G.19 rate for accounts assessed interest is the annualized ratio of total finance charges to the average daily balances they were charged on, and it excludes accounts for which no finance charges were assessed. That makes it the better gauge of what revolvers actually pay, and it sits more than twice as high as the proposed cap.

Credit Card Ownership and Balance Statistics

• Eighty-two percent of adults had a credit card in 2025, compared to a high of 84% in 2021, according to the Federal Reserve’s household survey.
• In 2025, 45% of credit card owners said they carried a balance at least once during the prior 12 months, down 12 points over the past decade.
• Almost all adults with an income of $100,000 or more had a credit card, and slightly over half of cardholders with income under $100,000 carried balances from month to month.
• Sixty-one percent of adults in 2025 felt very confident their credit card application would be approved, if they were to apply, down from 65% in 2021.

Source: CFPB Consumer Credit Card Market Report 2025, Federal Reserve SHED 2025

How many Americans carry credit card debt?

In 2025, 45% of credit card owners carried a balance at least once in the prior 12 months, according to the Federal Reserve. The CFPB found the average credit card balance increased to about $8,700 for cardholders with prime credit scores in 2024. The broader credit card usage statistics cover ownership by age and income.

Credit Card Interest and Fee Statistics

• The rise in interest charges was driven by higher APRs, a 9.5% increase in cardholders, and an 18% increase in the average monthly balance per cardholder.
• Fees paid by consumers rose 23% from 2022 to $31.3 billion.
• Credit cards with an interest-free introductory APR promotion represented $899 billion in purchase volume and $352 billion in balances by the end of 2024.
• Cash back cards grew from 28% to 36% of general purpose accounts over the last ten years, becoming the most common general purpose credit card.

By the numbers: Consumers were assessed $160 billion in interest charges in 2024, up from $105 billion in 2022, and paid another $31.3 billion in fees, according to the CFPB. Interest outweighed fees by roughly 5.1 to one, which is why APRs, more than fees, drive the cost of carrying a card.

The credit card rewards program data covers how cash back and points cards are funded.

Credit Card Delinquency Measures Compared

• The share of credit card balances 90+ days delinquent rose from 7.6% to 12.8% between 2022:Q3 and 2026:Q1, on the NY Fed’s stock measure.
• The flow delinquency rate, which captures new delinquencies, has remained relatively stable for almost two years.
• The proportion of large-bank card balances 30+ days past due stood at 3.3% in Q1 2026, down year over year for the sixth straight quarter.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York 2026, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia 2026, Federal Reserve Board 2026

Key finding: New York Fed researchers found the stock delinquency rate is rising because of a pool of stale, charged-off debts that lenders have been reporting for longer durations, rather than a fundamental worsening in the incidence of delinquency. The climb from 7.6% to 12.8% therefore tracks longer reporting of old losses rather than a jump in new missed payments.

The measures count different things, from credit-report balances to new transitions and bank-book balances, so comparing them without that context makes a stable market read as a crisis.

Credit Card Delinquency and Charge-Off Rates

• The Federal Reserve’s seasonally adjusted credit card delinquency rate at all commercial banks fell 0.2 points between Q1 2025 and Q2 2026.
• The all-bank credit card charge-off rate was 0.62 points lower in Q2 2026 than in Q1 2025, and it held flat between the last two quarters.
• The large-bank net charge-off rate has fallen in four consecutive quarters compared with a year earlier, per the Philadelphia Fed.

Delinquency fell in each quarter after Q1 2025, and charge-offs fell in all but the last, where they held flat, a sign bank losses have turned even as balances climb.

Credit Card Issuer Statistics

• Capital One’s credit card period-end loans increased $4.9 billion, or 2%, to $275.4 billion in Q2 2026.
• Capital One reported Q2 2026 net income of $3.0 billion, or $4.73 per share, with net charge-offs of $3.6 billion.
• American Express billed business reached $883.8 billion in the first six months of 2026, up from $803.7 billion a year earlier.
• JPMorgan Chase said net interest income excluding Markets was driven partly by higher revolving balances in Card Services.

Source: American Express, Capital One and JPMorgan Chase Q2 2026 earnings releases

Premium issuer growth has its own detail in the American Express cardholder data, including spending and card fee trends.

Credit Card Loss Rates by Issuer

• American Express posted a second-quarter net write-off rate of 2.0%.
• JPMorgan Chase reported a Card Services net charge-off rate of 3.34% for Q2 2026.
• Capital One recorded a $662 million loan reserve release in Q2 2026.

These are three differently defined measures (a net write-off rate, a net charge-off rate and a seasonally adjusted all-bank rate), so treat them as indicative. For fraud-related costs, see the card fraud loss statistics.

Large Bank Credit Card Portfolio Statistics

• Total credit card balances at the large banks stood at $948.7 billion as of Q1 2026, per the Philadelphia Fed.
• The dollar volume of credit card originations rose 8.7% year over year in Q1 2026 to $105.5 billion.
• Year-over-year growth in commitments outpaced that of balances for the fifth consecutive quarter.

New accounts grew fastest while balances grew slowest, which reads as banks competing for spenders more than for revolvers.

Credit Card Payment Preference Statistics

• Consumers made an average of 47 payments per month in 2025, similar to 2024 levels, per the Federal Reserve’s payment diary.
• Debit card payments increased by one per month in 2025, and credit card payments declined by one.
• Cash accounted for an average of six payments per month, or 14% of total payments.
• Large-bank purchase volume in Q1 2026 was 6.4% higher than a year earlier.

More consumers now prefer credit cards in person, 38% compared to 24% in 2016, nearly equal to the 40% who prefer debit. Installment credit competes for some of those checkout moments, and the buy now, pay later market data shows how that alternative is scaling.

Credit Card Network Volume Statistics

• Visa processed 71.7 billion transactions in the quarter ended June 30, 2026, a 10% increase over the prior year.
• Visa’s cross-border volume excluding transactions within Europe rose 12% in constant dollars in the quarter.
• Mastercard credit and charge programs carried 1,206 million cards worldwide and 365 million in the US at the end of Q2 2026.
• Mastercard gross dollar volume across all programs reached $2,881 billion worldwide in Q2 2026.

Why it matters: Mastercard’s credit and charge programs carried $458 billion of US volume in Q2 2026 against $400 billion on debit, while outside the US debit led at $1,150 billion to $874 billion. On Mastercard’s network, credit leads debit in the US but trails it across the rest of the world combined.

Network-level detail by brand sits in the Visa network statistics, which cover card counts and payments volume over time. Network payments volume grew 8% to 10% in the latest quarter, well ahead of the 3.2% rise in large-bank card balances. The Mastercard spending and volume data follow the same pattern as the other large network.

Conclusion

US credit card balances stood at $1.26 trillion in the latest NY Fed report, and large banks charged an average 24.0% on general-purpose cards. Yet the credit picture is steadier than the headline debt number suggests: bank charge-off and delinquency rates have eased, more large-bank accounts pay in full, and NY Fed researchers attribute the rise in the 90-day stock rate to stale, charged-off debt.

The next test is pricing. A higher federal funds rate pushes variable APRs up, while cap proposals push the other way, and issuer results over the coming quarters will show whether balance growth and loss rates keep moving apart.