In February of this year the United States government and census data determined that that the average adult in the United States has $3,752 in revolving credit card debt. This is actually a decline from July of 2009, when the average credit card debt per adult was estimated at $4,013 The total credit card debt of the average entire household in the United States is $7,394 down from $7,861. Apparently the United States consumers have actually wised up to their credit card debt spending ways.

There was some other interesting data released by the Federal reserve board as well. One of the surveys taken suggested that 75% of all Americans have one or more credit cards. The surprising number to me is that 25% of household actually do not have any credit cards of any kind at all.

This information is actually very encouraging for my overall perception of the spending habit of Americans. What this data suggests is that there is a nice percentage of the population that is fully aware of how costly having credit cards can be. I would be curious to see how this 25% that does not have any credit cards at all breaks down demographic wise. Basically I hope that the 25% does not just account for people who are under the age of 18 and simply can’t get a credit card yet.

I would like to think though that the recent credit crunch is in fact teaching valuable lessons to those who spent like crazy during the economic boom but are now strapped for cash and are finding ways on how to eliminate credit card debt. The raging economy prior to the start of the recession was simply too easy to get money with. I had several friends who were mortgage brokers who could get someone approved for a loan that was a “no doc” loan. What this means in simple English is that one didn’t need any kind of documentation to get the loan. One of my close buddies told me that he was able to approve a guy with his ID from working as a bus driver.

People spent and spent, but now there is no more money to spend and jobs are much tighter then they have ever been. Companies are cutting back which has led to less people having jobs or even if they have jobs they might not be getting the hours that they once had. The people that were already loaded with credit card debt prior to the recession were sent looking for Credit card debt settlement like Indiana debt relief or virginia debt relief.

The conclusion that I draw from the apparent decrease in the total amount of revolving debt is this. There was an increase in credit card debt as soon as the economy took a quick turn south. This was simply because people didn’t have jobs and had to use them. The improvement can be based on both the economy slowly improving in conjunction with the reduction of consumer spending on their credit cards.