Report: Texas, Georgia cities have least sustainable credit card debt

Cities with the least sustainable credit card debt are in southern states, primarily in Texas and Georgia, according to a new report by the personal-finance website WalletHub.

Of the top 20 cities with the most unsustainable debt, five are in Texas and four are in Georgia. Texas cities include Crosby, Livingston, Magnolia, Richmond and Willis.

Georgia cities include Buford, Canton, Cumming and Dahlonega.

Jacksonville, North Carolina, has the most unsustainable credit card debt, according to the analysis. Its debt payoff timeline is 138 months and 17 days – the longest in the U.S.

The report, 2020’s Cities with the Least-Sustainable Credit Card Debt and the site’s Credit Card Debt Study, depicts “a worrisome picture” nationwide, according to the analysis.

Consumers racked up $21.5 billion in credit card debt from June through September, alone, WalletHub notes, “sending outstanding debt to an all-time record level for the third quarter of a year.”

“We are in a very unhealthy, precarious position with respect to revolving debt at the household level,” WalletHub CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou said in a statement. “The third quarter’s results also make the final few months of the year even scarier, given that this is when people tend to rack up the most debt.”

Americans began 2019 owing more than $1 trillion in credit card debt.

“WalletHub is projecting an $80 billion net increase in credit card debt for 2019. That would push the average household’s balance to $9,451 and bring our collective credit card debt to roughly $1.1 trillion,” Papadimitriou added. “For context, $1.1 trillion is roughly three times as much as the federal government will spend on net interest payments toward the national debt this year.”

The report is based on data from TransUnion, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Census Bureau and WalletHub’s proprietary credit card payoff calculator. The site’s calculator helps determine the cost and time required to repay the median credit card balance in more than 2,500 U.S. cities.

Other cities in the top 20 with the least sustainable credit card debt, are Park City Utah, Lake Placid, Florida, Ewa Beach, Hawaii, Ooltewah, Tennessee, Green Cove Springs, Florida, Freehold New Jersey, Palmer Arkansas, Lemore, California, Wasilla, Arkansas, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

This article was first published by The Center Square.

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