“Don’t borrow what you can’t repay.” It’s one of the most cited principles of personal finance, but what if you borrowed it so long ago, you forgot why you needed it in the first place?
While there is probably no single answer to that question–at least not one that will fit neatly into a Suze Orman-style mantra–a new survey from WalletHub reveals that more than one in 10 consumers truly don’t remember why they first got into credit card debt.
The survey results were released along with WalletHub’s annual “Credit Card Debt Study,” which looks at quarterly trends in outstanding card balances. It showed that American consumers racked up a staggering $92.2 billion in credit card debt last year. Disturbingly, credit card balances have now topped the $1 trillion mark for the first time, WalletHub says.
Even as 10% of consumers are apparently struggling with a kind of debt amnesia, the vast majority (88%) still believe they run their personal finances better than the federal government. I guess it’s even easier to forget where your debt is coming from when the money you’re spending belongs to someone else.
Check out the full study here.
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