Credit Card Debt Rises

Credit Card Debt Soars as House Prices Plunge

-The Federal Reserve Board reported yesterday that credit card debt rose at an 11.3 percent annual rate in November after rising at an 8.5 percent rate in October.

-The explanation for this surge in credit card debt is that millions of homeowners are losing the ability to borrow against their home.

-Millions of households will soon have little choice but to sharply curtail their consumption.

-...house prices in the aggregate index were dropping at an annual rate of 11.7 percent in the three months from July to October. At this pace, households will lose more than $2.2 trillion in housing wealth over the next year. Some of the really big losers in the latest data were Las Vegas,...San Diego,...and Miami...

How Can I Reduce Credit Card Debt?

-The most important step you must take to reduce credit card debt is to stop using your credit cards.

-Cut up all of your credit cards so they're not available.

-... look into new credit card offers that offer no or low interest on starting balances.