6 CA Cities Among Top 10 U.S. Cities With Highest Credit Card Debt

CALIFORNIA — Americans have accumulated $1.35 trillion in credit card debt, with some cities carrying significantly higher balances than others, according to a new study by WalletHub.

Californians hold some of the highest debt in the country. In fact, six California cities ranked among the top 10 U.S. cities with the most debt.

Analysts at the personal-finance website looked at consumer finance data from TransUnion for 181 cities to determine which cities had the highest and lowest credit card debt.

Santa Clarita, a city north of Los Angeles, ranked as the city with the highest credit card debt per household. The average household owes $22,753 on their credit cards, according to the report, which adds up to a total of more than $1.7 billion for all of the residents collectively.

"However, since Santa Clarita has a much higher median income than the U.S. average, this indicates that people may simply have big credit card limits and can afford to spend a lot," the report said.

Chula Vista, the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, ranked as the city with the second-highest credit card debt per household. The average household credit card debt in the city is $20,567, according to the report, which adds up to a total of nearly $1.8 billion for Chula Vista's population.

"Like Santa Clarita, Chula Vista is also a wealthy city where many people can manage high spending," the report said. "It also has a relatively low share of people in financial distress, and it ranks 67th out of 100 of the largest cities when it comes to debt delinquency."

Other Golden State cities that landed in the top 10 include Fontana at No. 4, Riverside at No. 5, Rancho Cucamonga at No. 7 and Glendale at No. 10.

Lewiston, Maine, ranked as the city with the least credit card debt.

These are the cities in California that made the list. National rankings are in parenthesis:

1. Santa Clarita (1)
2. Chula Vista (2)
3. Fontana (4)
4. Riverside (5)
5. Rancho Cucamonga (7)
6. Glendale (10)
7. Moreno Valley (11)
8. Santa Ana (12)
9. Oxnard (13)
10. Ontario (16)
11. Los Angeles (17)
12. Anaheim (19)
13. Irvine (21)
14. Huntington Beach (24)
15. Oceanside (29)
16. San Diego (31)
17. Long Beach (36)
18. Garden Grove (37)
19. San Jose (38)
20. Bakersfield (45)
21. Stockton (48)
22. Oakland (54)
23. San Francisco (57)
24. Fresno (61)
25. Santa Rosa (62)
26. San Bernardino (63)
27. Fremont (70)
28. Sacramento (80)
29. Modesto (83)

Read the full report on WalletHub.