OKLAHOMA CITY – Americans apparently used some of their federal stimulus payments to erase credit card debt last year.
A record $82.9 billion in credit card debt was paid off in 2020. That was a notable achievement, considering U.S. consumers have amassed an average of $54.2 billion in credit card debt annually over the past decade.
Nevertheless, don’t break open the champagne just yet. Americans still owed more than $955 billion to credit card companies in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Also, the average credit card debt per household at the end of last year was $8,089, according to a WalletHub credit card debt study.
In Oklahoma City, total credit card debt at the end of last year was calculated to be $2.89 billion and the household average was $11,908, an increase of $72 from Q4 2019. In Tulsa, total credit card debt at the end of 2020 was $1.99 billion and the household average was $12,172, an increase of $94 from Q4 2019.
Furthermore, those numbers are expected to increase as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. WalletHub projects that U.S. consumers will add approximately $50 billion to their credit card balance this year. (WalletHub’s quarterly credit card debt studies are based on analysis of the latest data about consumers’ finances available from TransUnion, the Federal Reserve and the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.)
The National Retail Federation forecasts that retail sales this year will grow between 6.5% and 8.2%, to more than $4.3 trillion, as more Americans get vaccinated against the coronavirus and the economy continues to reopen. Online sales nationally are expected to grow between 18% and 23%, to between $1.14 trillion and $1.19 trillion, the NRF predicts.
In comparison, the NRF said early results showed that retail sales in 2020 grew 6.7% over 2019, to $4.06 trillion, and the growth rate in 2019 was 3.9%. Online and other non-store sales accounted for almost 22% of retail sales last year, $969 billion, as consumers relied heavily on e-commerce during the pandemic.
Retail is the nation’s largest private-sector employer.