St. Cloud Debt: Insights On Credit Card Delinquency Rates And Average Debt

As we hurtle towards the holidays, that scent in the air is not spruce or cinnamon. It's the smell of smoldering plastic as Americans burn through their credit cards for this season of holiday gift-giving.

And that means more personal debt. And in many cases, that leads to late or missed credit card payments. Or worse.

More of us are spending more with plastic that increasingly we can't pay off.

The good news? A new study from Upgraded Points finds Minnesota has the third lowest rate of severely delinquent cardholders defined as 90 days or more overdue:

1. Wisconsin (6.8%)
2. Utah (7.1%)
3. Minnesota (7.4%)

The highest rates of severely delinquent cardholders? Mississippi with 17.9%. What's more, six other southern states have rates of 15% or more.

The study used data from the Federal Reserve Bank and the Federal Financial Institutions' Examination Council.

It found national 4th Quarter household credit card debt surged 15.2% year-over-year in Q4 2022 and 14.5% in Q4 2023.

The problem with all that debt is the increasing risk of falling behind on payments. And in fact, after hitting a low 9.4% in Q3 of 2021, the report found the delinquency rate did indeed rise to 12.2% by Q4 2023.

St. Cloud Under the Credit Card Microscope

Upgraded Points zoomed in on St. Cloud and America's other metro areas and found:

Last year, 7.4% of cardholders in the St. Cloud metro had severely delinquent debt (90+ days overdue).
The average credit card debt in the St. Cloud metro was $4,826.
Additionally, 19.7% of St. Cloud metro cardholders utilized more than 75% of their total credit, which can hurt credit scores and make it more difficult to secure loans or favorable interest rates in the future.

Keep in mind, those aren't horrible numbers in comparison. In fact, they're pretty dang good when you compare them with other metros in the United States.