U.S. consumers paid down $60 billion in credit card balances in the first quarter of 2026, leaving total debt at $1.35 trillion, according to WalletHub’s latest quarterly study of Federal Reserve and Labor Department data.
That total is $212 billion below the 2008 record. After inflation, first-quarter paydowns were 6 percent larger than in the same period of 2025, though the decline was about 5 percent smaller than the typical first-quarter drop since the Great Recession.
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 peak set in the fourth quarter of 2007. Preliminary April figures put the household average at $11,169 and total balances still near $1.35 trillion.
Alina Comoreanu, WalletHub Senior Researcher, said: “U.S. consumers paid off $60 billion in credit card debt during the first quarter of 2026, bringing our total balance to roughly $1.35 trillion. Preliminary data for April shows that debt remains essentially unchanged year over year.”
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 outstanding card debt was 3 percent below the all-time high before inflation adjustment and 14 percent below after adjustment. 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.
April balances were 0.03 percent lower than a year earlier after inflation and 4 percent higher without that adjustment. The Federal Reserve changed some data categories in December 2024, and WalletHub adjusted its series for consistency. The full study is published on WalletHub.com.
