U.S. cardholders cut their balances by $60 billion in the first quarter of 2026, leaving total credit card debt at $1.35 trillion, according to WalletHub’s quarterly study of Federal Reserve and Labor Department data.
The paydown was 6 percent larger than in the first quarter of 2025 after inflation. It was about 5 percent smaller than the typical first-quarter decline since the Great Recession. Total debt remains $212 billion below the 2008 record and 14 percent below that peak after inflation.
Average household credit card debt stood at $11,153 after inflation, or $11,059 without the adjustment. That is $2,263 below the inflation-adjusted high set in late 2007. Preliminary April figures put the household average at $11,169, with national balances still near $1.35 trillion.
Year over year, April debt was 0.03 percent lower after inflation and 4 percent higher without that adjustment.
Finance charges fell 8.52 percent from the prior quarter to about $169 billion. The charge-off rate dropped 0.50 percentage point to 4.01 percent.
WalletHub said the debt-to-deposits ratio was 7.0 percent, 61 percent below its late-2000 peak. The debt-to-assets ratio was 0.64 percent, 54 percent below its late-2002 peak.
The study uses seasonally unadjusted revolving credit and inflation-adjusted figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. WalletHub said it restated some series after the Federal Reserve changed data categories in December 2024. The full report is published on WalletHub.com.
