This story appeared in Bank Digest.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued the latest in its occasional series of data point reports—this one studying patterns of revolving and repayment of credit card accounts in the United States. Cardholders can either repay their balances in full at the end of a billing cycle or repay only a portion of the balance, borrowing the unpaid portion, in which case they are said to revolve a balance. The current report examines how often balances are revolved (or borrowed) on an account, how long balances are revolved, and how regularly they are paid down.
According to the report, about two-thirds of actively used credit card accounts carry a revolving balance, and once consumers pay less than the balance due and begin to revolve on an account, they do so continuously for about 10 months on average. The report added that the longer a balance is revolved, the higher the chances are that a consumer will continue to revolve a balance on the account.