Pocketbook pain

Dallas-Fort Worth among worst in U.S. for burden of credit card debt, survey shows

In Dallas-Fort Worth, it takes an average of 19 months to pay off credit card debt.

Dallas-Fort Worth, we have a debt problem. A new study by CreditCards.com puts DFW at No. 5 in the nation for length of time to pay off credit card debt and interest accrued.

In DFW, it takes the typical worker 19 months to pay off the average credit card balance ($7,171). DFW is in good company, though; two other Texas metro areas, San Antonio (No. 1) and Houston (No. 3), also rated among the worst areas for credit card debt in the country.

CreditCards.com compiled 2017 data from credit-reporting bureau Experian to come up with its ranking of 25 large U.S. metro areas based on the credit card burden shouldered by their residents. The website looked at each metro area’s average credit card balance in relation to income, using median earnings per worker.

“By computing how long it would take to pay off the average balance, the analysis measures not just the dollar size of credit card debt, but also how heavily it weighs on consumers’ budgets,” CreditCards.com notes.

The CreditCards.com study found that it takes the typical San Antonio worker 22 months to pay off the average credit card balance ($7,070). In Houston, it takes the typical worker 20 months to pay off the average credit card balance ($7,121), according to the study.

By contrast, the typical earner in San Francisco — the metro area with the lightest credit card burden — needs only 13 months to pay off the average balance there. CreditCards.com points out that the San Francisco area’s credit card burden is low thanks, in part, to having the second-highest median income among the 25 metros.

Texas cities also had above-average increases in card balances from 2016 to 2017, the survey shows. During the same period, jobs recovered from the sharp dip they took during 2014-2016, when a slowdown in the energy industry nearly put Texas into a regional recession.

“Some expansion of credit can be an indication of a healthy household balance sheet,” the website notes. As the job market improves, people may loosen their purse strings and make up for spending that was put off during lean times, it says.

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Museum News

Texas Civil War Museum in Fort Worth to close and sell off artifacts

Texas Civil War Museum

Texas Civil War Museum RIP

A Fort Worth museum is closing its doors: The Texas Civil War Museum, which displayed artifacts from the Civil War era, will close at the end of October.

The museum, located at 760 Jim Wright Fwy. North in White Settlement, had been open since 2006.

According to a post by museum marketing director Dennis Partrich, the venue will close on October 31.

"The museum will be closing for good," Patrich said. "The decision was made by the family and the board of directors. In addition, the building has been sold."

In November, the bulk of its collection will go to a consignor in Pennsylvania called The Horse Soldier, who said in a statement that they'd be selling it to interested parties piece-by-piece.

"We will not be selling these items at auction, but we will be posting items to our website to sell, and selling out of our shop in Gettysburg," the consignor said.

The Texas Civil War Museum was founded by North Texas oil executive Ray Richey, and featured photographs, war antiques, uniforms, and guns donated by Richey and his wife, Judy, who curates a collection of Victorian-era dresses.

The museum also displayed materials donated by the now-closed Texas Confederate Museum in Austin. Those materials are owned by the Texas division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and will not be sold.

All other items will be placed in storage.

The museum initially planned to close in December 2023 but was persuaded to stay open by ardent fans.

It became embroiled in the Confederate statue imbroglio in 2019 wherein the city of Dallas took down a 1935 bronze statue of Robert E. Lee and considered donating it to the museum before selling it to a private buyer. According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the museum defended Confederate monuments on its Facebook page, but Richey told the newspaper that “we just deal with the artifacts and try to present the war as it happened. We don’t want to get into the 'why'."

Since the museum shared the news of its closure on August 29, it has already experienced a flurry of interest, including brisk sales at its museum store which sells old flags and other Civil War memorabilia.

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