Comment by seadan83 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by seadan83 | Hacker News Reader

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Credit card debt and credit card balance are the same thing.

> I don't know about others, but I always float thousands on my balance

This is the operative part. People on this forum tend to be in tech, and floating thousands is possible. A quick google search showed average US income is 60k/yr. Less 10k for taxes, less 20k for housing, that allows a float of less than 3k per year. The source previously stated an average debt of 6k, which is a balance more then the monthly income, and ergo is being carried over.

Looking for more direct data on how many Americans are paying credit card interest, I found this data:

"Half of credit cardholders surveyed in June (2024) as part of Bankrate's latest Credit Card Debt Survey said they carry balances over month to month. That is up from 44% in January – and the highest since since March 2020, when 60% of people carried debt from month to month" [1]

I thereby stand by my statement that your second paragraph was equally wrong (and equally right) as the second paragraph you were calling wrong.

[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/08/10/credit-card-...

Credit card debt and credit card balance aren’t the same thing, in practice.

If I had long standing debt on a credit card, I’d be paying an extremely high interest rate on that debt even with a >800 credit score.

If I have a balance that’s completely paid every month, I pay no interest on that “debt”. And while that money is floating, it’s in a 4.5% high yield savings account (Sallie Mae).

In the former situation, I am losing money. In the later, I’m making money. (Compared to paying with cash / debit).

Excellent point made here; credit card balance can be a money maker, actually! The actual opposite of debt.

In what percentage of total cases and to what fraction of the total balance? Please bring citations. This strikes me as a very glib, noisy, and unsupported claim.

> Credit card debt and credit card balance aren’t the same thing, in practice.

In practice, but pedanticatically speaking they are the same. If I asked, how much credit card debt do you have, you shouldn't say zero just because you likely will pay off the balance before the grace period expires.

EG:What is the balance on your mortgage? How much mortgage debt do you have? (The latter implies across all mortgages. That is the extent to which there is a distinction)

Pedantics and straw-manning aside, the main point, supported by citations - is that most americans are not paying their credit cards off, in full, every month.

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