Credit card debt decreased 18% to $6,285 in August even as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a slightly lower year-over-year 9.1% unemployment rate for the month, according to Credit Karma's latest U.S. Credit Score Climate report.
Consumers in 19 states paid down their debt by equal to or more than the national average, including:
* Wisconsin - down by 37%
* Hawaii - down by 22%
* Missouri, Nevada - down by 21%
* Maine - down by 20%
* California, Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas - down by 19%
* Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Idaho, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Rhode Island - down by 18%
"The relative uncertainty of the current job market has forced consumers to live within their means and focus on being financially responsible," says Ken Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com. "This trend is reflected in the report by consumers' continuing efforts to pay down their credit card debt."
Nationally, the average consumer with an account had:
* $174,742 in home mortgage loans - stable year-over-year
* $47,956 in home equity debt - down seven percent year-over-year
* $15,275 in auto loans - up one percent year-over-year
* $29,985 in student loans - up six percent year-over-year
Other key findings include:
* Credit scores fell three points nationally from August 2010 to 665. The states with the highest credit scores include California (683), New Jersey (682), Massachusetts (681), and Hawaii (681).
* Oklahoma (648), Kentucky (643), Louisiana (643), South Carolina (641), West Virginia (641), Alabama (639), Arkansas (638) and Mississippi (626) have credit scores of 650 or lower, which is considered poor.
* Consumers in Alaska ($7,585), New Jersey ($7,326) and Colorado ($7,217) have the highest credit card debt while consumers in Mississippi ($5,799), Alabama ($5,625) and Wisconsin ($4,720) have the least.
Each month, the CreditKarma.com U.S. Consumer Credit Score Climate Report compares the current credit scores of its user base with previous scores pulled at least 30 days prior and no more than 90 days prior to the stated month. This month's report includes a comparison of more than 262,887 CreditKarma.com user scores.
