What the chart shows: the % of U.S. households who self-report they "sometimes" or "hardly ever" pay their credit card balance in full each month, broken out by age of the household head.
Two terms, since they come up a lot:
- Revolver = household carrying a balance month-to-month and paying interest on it. About 32% of U.S. households (~43 million homes).
- Transactor = household paying in full nearly every month. The majority — about 58%.
by Global-Thought-1049
3 Comments
**Source:** Federal Reserve [2022 Survey of Consumer Finances](https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm) (n=4,595 households, sample-weighted).
**Tools:** Python, matplotlib.
**Method:** For each age bracket of household head, computed the weighted share of households who report that they “sometimes” or “hardly ever” pay their credit card balance in full each month (SCF question x432 ∈ {3, 5}).
**Detailed Methodology:** [https://efficientdollar.com/blog/americans-committed-not-reckless/](https://efficientdollar.com/blog/americans-committed-not-reckless/)
Wait, so the 35-44 group is the highest? That aligns with what my parents are going through rn tbh. So much going on lol.
I know some people can’t help it, but these numbers seem much higher than representing people who don’t have a choice (since the US poverty rate is ~10.6%, about 1/3 of what these balance carrying numbers indicate). Credit cards are the worst places to carry debt guys. Get loans if you need to pay something off over time