With U.S. credit card debt over $1.3 trillion, the personal-finance company WalletHub has released its latest report Cities With the Most & Least-Sustainable Credit Card Debt shedding light on how consumers in different parts of the country are managing their financial obligations.
| Cities With Least Sustainable Debts | Cities With Most Sustainable Debts |
| 1. Gulfport, MS | 173. Worcester, MA |
| 2. North Las Vegas, NV | 174. Washington, DC |
| 3. Tallahassee, FL | 175. Columbia, MD |
| 4. Pembroke Pines, FL | 176. Madison, WI |
| 5. New Orleans, LA | 177. Seattle, WA |
| 6. Port St. Lucie, FL | 178. Irvine, CA |
| 7. El Paso, TX | 179. Jersey City, NJ |
| 8. Knoxville, TN | 180. San Jose, CA |
| 9. Norfolk, VA | 181. San Francisco, CA |
| 10. Birmingham, AL | 182. Fremont, CA |
Full rankings: https://wallethub.com/edu/
National Stats
- Q3 Improvement: At $16 billion, the increase in credit card debt during Q3 2025 was around 27% smaller than the increase in Q3 2024.
- Debt Is Well Below the Peak: Total credit card debt as of Q3 was roughly $1.33 trillion on an inflation-adjusted basis, which was about 13% below the record high.
- Household Debt Has Some Breathing Room: The average household credit card balance was around $11,019 at the end of Q3 2025, after adjusting for inflation. That’s $2,065 below the record high.
- Early Q4 Returns: Preliminary data for October shows a 0.2% decrease in credit card debt compared to the same month last year.
- Best Balance Transfer Credit Cards: The best balance transfer credit cards currently offer 0% APRs for up to 24 months, with no annual fees and low balance transfer fees.
“In the cities with the least sustainable credit card debt, residents tend to have low median incomes, which contributes to larger than average credit card debts. As a result, people are only able to make small payments on their debts each month, stretching out the amount of time to get debt-free to as long as 9 years. This can lead to thousands of dollars in interest payments – in some cases, more interest than the amount of debt they currently owe.”
–
“Gulfport, MS, has the least sustainable credit card debt with a median balance of $2,997 and a payoff timeline over 105 months (nearly 9 years). Gulfport residents take a long time to pay off their credit card debts in part because their median earnings are very low, at just $42,689 per year. Thus residents make very small monthly credit card payments, averaging just $62 and will end up paying an average of $3,532 in interest by the time they get debt-free, according to WalletHub calculations.”
- Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst
More From WalletHub
No comments:
Post a Comment