What is the average amount of debt for an American?

Question

What is the average amount of debt for an American?

Answer 1

It's hard to find any valid numbers that has reliable sources. The last big research done on this is from 2004.

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U.S. consumers have an average debt of $11,224 compared to last year’s average debt of $10,024.

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Source: http://www.nationalscoreindex.com/ScoreN...

That's for 2004.

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By some estimates, the average American household has over $9,300 in credit card debt.

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Source: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Ban...

They admit to using numbers estimated on the 2004 report and it's about credit cards not all dept.

They also go on to saying:

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    * The majority of U.S. households have no credit card debt, according to the Federal Reserve's latest Survey of Consumer Finances. About a quarter have no credit cards, and an additional 30% or so pay off their balances every month.

    * Of the households that do owe money on credit cards, the median balance was $2,200 -- meaning half owe more, half less.

    * Only 8.3% of households owe $9,000 or more on their cards.

The next triennial survey won't be released until 2009.

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This is from this year (2008):

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In January, average debt on credit accounts and fixed-payment accounts such as auto loans climbed to $16,600, up from $15,500 last April, according to the credit reporting agency Experian.

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Source: http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/...

They claim that the source is Experian but I have not been able to find the same information at the Experian site. Not saying that it isn't there, only that I can't find it.

http://www.experian.com/