Record credit card balances, fewer trips to McDonald’s: More signs of strain ahead of the holidays

Detailed summary

Federal data shows savings rates have dipped below 4% of total income, well below pre-pandemic levels and revealing a fraying financial safety cushion.

Big credit card bills are supposed to show up after the holiday shopping season. This year, Christmas came early.

Just one week after affordability took center stage in the midterm elections, fresh data shows Americans are heading into the holiday shopping season saddled with record credit card balances.

Americans’ total credit card debt hit $1.29 trillion in the three months ending in September — a rise of $22 billion over that time period, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s latest quarterly report on household debt and credit. That’s 67% higher compared with the first quarter of 2021, when pandemic restrictions limited spending on things like travel and dining out.

“The consumer is in a fragile state,” Steve Cahillane, the CEO of Kraft Heinz, said on the company’s quarterly earnings call earlier this month. He said the company, which makes everything from ketchup to cream cheese, was planning on holding off on significant price increases “in order to meet the consumers where they are.”

Total household debt, which includes mortgages, student and auto loans, credit cards, home equity lines of credit and other borrowing, rose by $334 billion in the third quarter to $19.1 trillion. That’s $5 trillion more than at the end of 2019, just before the pandemic-driven recession.

“Last week, voters expressed their anger at the high cost of living. With prices up an average of 30% since 2019, millions of Americans have depleted their savings and taken on debt to make ends meet,” said Ted Rossman, principal consumer finance analyst at Money Management International, a nonprofit credit counseling agency.

Federal data also shows savings rates have dipped below 4% of total income, well below pre-pandemic levels and revealing a fraying financial safety cushion.

“Household budgets are reaching a breaking point. The past two months have been our busiest months for debt management plan sign-ups in more than 15 years,” Rossman added.

And as household debt climbs, consumer…

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