Credit card spending rose by $15.94 billion during the third quarter of 2014, according to the consumer credit card website CardHub.com.
The CardHub study, released this week, noted that the uptick in U.S. jobs throughout the year, including 321,000 new jobs added in November alone, gave consumers greater confidence in the economy's recovery.
At the same time, credit card use has not substantially changed since the Great Recession, according to CardHub CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou.
“Consumers must strive to remember the corrosive impact of debt on household finances during the recession and work to get out from under its influence before the burden becomes unbearable again,” Papadimitriou wrote in the study.
The $15.94 billion added in Q3 2014 represented a 35% increase over Q3 2013 and a 25% rise relative to Q3 2012.
Further, CardHub projected that U.S. consumers will incur a total of more than $60 billion in new credit card debt by the end of 2014, which would be an increase of at least 55% over 2013.
If there is a plus side to overwhelming debt load, Papadimitriou said, it's that the credit card charge-off rate, at 2.89%, was at its lowest point since 1985, which indicated that consumers have the financial wherewithal to remain current on their obligations.
Despite the favorable percentage, CardHub projected consumers will charge off $30.35 billion in credit card debt during 2014. If that projection holds true, they will have defaulted on nearly $298.5 billion in credit card debt since 2009.
The average household's credit card balance increased by $68 during the third quarter of 2014, Papadimitriou said, and is now $6,870. The figure likely will reach $7,126 by the end of the year, bringing U.S. consumers roughly $1,200 away from a tipping point at which minimum payments will become unsustainable and delinquencies will skyrocket.
As with years past, Q1 2014 saw consumers paying down their debt load during that quarter by $32.5 billion, a rate slightly lower than the previous three years and significantly lower than 2009 and 2010.
Whatever debt relief was accomplished, changed in 2Q 2014, Papadimitriou said. Consumers added an additional $28.5 billion in credit card debt, effectively washing away 86% of the debt pay-down.
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