Credit card debt is on the rise. What does that mean for the average person?

Answer: $7,886

Questions:

• Are you surprised by the amount of credit card debt people carry? Why or why not?
• What are some consequences of carrying a credit card balance from month to month?
• What are some strategies you can use to pay your credit card bill every month?

Here are the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day you can use in your classroom.

Behind the numbers (Lending Tree):

"Americans’ total credit card balance is $1.277 trillion as of the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the latest consumer debt data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That’s up from $1.233 trillion in Q3 2025 and is the highest balance since the New York Fed began tracking in 1999.

It isn’t unusual for credit card debt to rise in Q4. The last time we saw card debt decrease in Q4 of a year was 2010, in the wake of the Great Recession.

With this quarter’s increase, credit card balances have risen by $507 billion since Q1 2021, when credit card debt bottomed out at $770 billion during the pandemic. That’s a 66% increase in nearly five years. Americans’ credit card debt is $350 billion higher than the pre-pandemic record set in Q4 2019, when balances stood at $927 billion. (That’s a 38% increase.) However, thanks to still-sky-high interest rates, stubborn inflation and myriad other economic factors, credit card balances are likely only going to climb.

These record balances are light years above the $478 billion seen more than 20 years ago in Q1 1999."

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Looking for a fun way to let students practice managing their credit? Play Credit Clash!

About the Author

Kathryn Dawson

Kathryn (she/her) is excited to join the NGPF team after 9 years of experience in education as a mentor, tutor, and special education teacher. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in policy analysis and management and has a master's degree in education from Brooklyn College. Kathryn is looking forward to bringing her passion for accessibility and educational justice into curriculum design at NGPF. During her free time, Kathryn loves embarking on cooking projects, walking around her Seattle neighborhood with her dog, or lounging in a hammock with a book.

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