
With American consumers estimated to have spent $656 billion — much of it with plastic — during the holiday shopping season, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2017’s Cities with the Highest & Lowest Credit Card Debts.
WalletHub’s analysts drew upon data from TransUnion, the Federal Reserve, the U.S. Census Bureau and WalletHub’s proprietary credit card payoff calculator to determine the number of months required to pay off the average credit-card balances and associated finance costs in 2,537 U.S. cities.
Cities with the Least Sustainable Credit-Card Debts | Cities with the Most Sustainable Credit-Card Debts | ||
West Chester, PA | Cupertino, CA | ||
Ruston, LA | Saratoga, CA | ||
Stillwater, OK | Sunnyvale, CA | ||
Lake Placid, FL | Mountain View, CA | ||
Monsey, NY | Los Altos, CA | ||
Milledgeville, GA | Lexington, MA | ||
Marquette, MI | Foster City, CA | ||
Hammond, LA | Palo Alto, CA | ||
Laramie, WY | Fremont, CA | ||
Carbondale, IL | Sammamish, WA | ||
Cordele, GA | McLean, VA | ||
Warrensburg, MO | Dublin, CA | ||
Auburn, AL | Chevy Chase, MD | ||
Dahlonega, GA | Arlington, MA | ||
Richmond, KY | Santa Clara, CA | ||
Ames, IA | Redmond, WA | ||
Deming, NM | Powell, OH | ||
San Marcos, TX | Belmont, CA | ||
Beaver Falls, PA | San Ramon, CA | ||
Kalamazoo, MI | Pleasanton, CA |
Key Stats
- San Luis, Ariz., the city with the lowest average credit-card debt, $2,880, which is 4.8 times lower than in Darien, Conn., the city with the highest at $13,817.
- Scarsdale, N.Y., has the highest median income, $104,234, which is 8.8 times higher than in Carbondale, Ill., the city with the lowest at $11,913.
- Cupertino, Calif., the city with the shortest payoff timeline, 10 months, which is 19.2 times shorter than in West Chester, Pa., the city with the longest at 192 months.