Charge!
Surprising share of North Texans saddled with $10,000 or more in credit card debt
You hear that noise, Dallas-Fort Worth? It’s the sound of your bank account screaming under the weight of the heavier debt load you’re shouldering.
A report released by personal finance platform LendingTree shows DFW ranks 18th among the 100 largest U.S. metro areas for the share of people (19.2 percent) with credit card balances totaling at least $10,000. LendingTree says 1.5 percent of cardholders in DFW owe at least $50,000.
DFW jumped 15 spots in the ranking compared with its 33rd-place showing in LendingTree’s 2019 report. The Metroplex wasn’t alone among Texas metros in terms of higher rankings:
- Austin moved from No. 26 in the 2019 survey to No. 6 this year. Today, 20.8 percent of cardholders in the Austin area have debt totaling at least $10,000 and 1.7 percent have credit card debt totaling at least $50,000.
- Houston climbed from No. 32 two years ago to No. 10 this year. According to LendingTree, 20 percent of cardholders in the metro have credit card debt of at least $10,000, and 1.6 percent have credit card debt of at least $50,000.
- San Antonio rose from No. 27 to No. 26. There, 18.4 percent of cardholders have credit card debt of $10,000 or more and 1.2 percent have credit card debt of $50,000 or more.
LendingTree offers perhaps a partial explanation for the increase in five-digit credit card balances among Texas metros: “While the saying goes that ‘everything is bigger in Texas,’ that hasn’t traditionally been the case with salaries in the Lone Star State. The big metros in Texas have generally trailed behind the big coastal metros in that measure.”
Bridgeport, Connecticut, holds the No. 1 spot for the largest share of cardholders (24.3 percent) with at least $10,000 in debt.
