Credit debt at its highest since the 2009 recession

While retailers found little to cheer about, it was a great holiday season for credit card companies.

But that could be to the detriment of millions of Americans who are facing a debt trap.

Consumer debt, built in part on holiday season purchases, is moving toward its highest point since 2009, according to a new study.

As of the end of December, revolving debt has “risen to $936 billion — up from $930 billion in November — the highest it’s been since the 2009 recession,” wrote Robert Harrow, a research analyst with ValuePenguin, a New York-based financial research company, in the study.

Revolving debt consists of open-ended accounts with variable interest rates and pre-determined credit limits. Examples are credit cards and home equity and personal lines of credit.

The average household debt of Americans is now $5,700, with the average American carrying $2,300 on credit cards, according to the ValuePenguin report.

These latest numbers, which are based on Census Bureau and Federal Reserve Board reports, include both those who pay off their card debts each month (“transactors”) and those who carry credit card balances from month to month (“revolvers”).

The report found some disturbing trends. Those who are the most vulnerable to missing payments — those with little net worth who often pay interest rates of as much as 15 percent to 17 percent on their card balances — tend to owe the most.

For instance, the balances — in the case of the people who carry them — is more than twice as high as the national household average of $15,779, according to the report.

It also said that those households with the lowest net worth owe an average of $10,308 in card debt.

“There’s no denying that the individuals with few assets are the ones drowning in credit card debt,” Harrow commented.

“You know you’re in trouble when all you can do is pay the minimum on card bills,” added Charles Hughes, a New York financial adviser.

Hughes advocates paying the highest-rate cards first and also trying to develop a cash reserve, so that revolvers can eventually become transactors.