In January, Americans claimed an inauspicious achievement by amassing just over $1 trillion in outstanding credit card debt — the highest in United States history, according to data compiled by the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Who’s carrying around this debt, and how do their outstanding balances compare to your own bottom line when it comes to purchasing with plastic?
The personal finance website WalletHub offered insights by mining data from TransUnion, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Census Bureau, and its own proprietary technology to examine more than 2,500 American cities and determine median credit card debt, cost in finance charges to pay off that debt, and the number of months required wipe the slate clean.
According to WalletHub, cities in southern states such as Texas, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee had the least sustainable credit card debt, while 14 cities in California comprised the top 20 locales with the most sustainable credit card debt. Notably, tech-centric California cities such as Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Palo Alto, and Mountain View were included in the Top 10; in Washington, Redmond ranked No. 15.
Here is a closer look at how Eastside cities fared in WalletHub’s study:
City: Renton
Percentile: 53
Median Credit Card Debt: $2,672
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $204
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 11
City: Woodinville
Percentile: 36
Median Credit Card Debt: $4,074
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $285
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 10
City: Bothell
Percentile: 21
Median Credit Card Debt: $3,032
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $192
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 9
City: Kirkland
Percentile: 21
Median Credit Card Debt: $3,363
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $213
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 9
City: Issaquah
Percentile: 9
Median Credit Card Debt: $3,647
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $208
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 8
City: Mercer Island
Percentile: 9
Median Credit Card Debt: $4,624
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $264
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 8
City: Sammamish
Percentile: 9
Median Credit Card Debt: $4,558
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $260
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 8
City: Bellevue
Percentile: 3
Median Credit Card Debt: $2,895
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $146
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 7
City: Redmond
Percentile: 1
Median Credit Card Debt: $3,001
Cost to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: $132
Months to Pay Off Credit Card Debt: 6
NOTE: 99th Percentile = Least Sustainable Credit-Card Debt
The complete report is available online here.