New Yorkers Take More Than A Year To Pay Off Credit Cards

NEW YORK — The holiday shopping season probably won't help this dubious distinction. New York City is in the top 5 percent of cities across the country with the least sustainable credit card debt, with a typical balance that takes more than a year to pay off, a new WalletHub report says.

The personal finance website used TransUnion credit data to examine the credit card balances of more than 2,500 U.S. cities. The Big Apple ranks in the 95th percentile nationwide with a median debt burden of $3,504, the report published Monday says.

It would take 16 months and 28 days for someone earning the city's median income to pay off that balance — during which time they would accrue $374 in interest, the report found.

That's more than eight times as long as the payoff period in Carmel, Indiana, where it takes a little over two months to get rid of the median balance of $3,646, WalletHub says. The city has the nation's most sustainable credit card debt, the report found.

But New Yorkers are much better off than borrowers in Colleyville, Texas. It takes 24 months and 28 days to pay off the median credit card balance of $5,593 in that city, which has the nation's least sustainable debt, according to WalletHub.

The nation as a whole is swimming in credit card debt, according to WalletHub. Americans are projected to end the year with $70 billion more of it than at the start, when they owed more than $1 trillion, the site says.

Read WalletHub's full report here.

(Lead image: Photo from Shutterstock)