Credit card debt rose 1% to $6,513 in September while credit scores nationally dropped four points to 663 during the third quarter ended September 30, according to Credit Karma's latest U.S. Credit Score Climate report.
The average consumer with an account had: $174,137 in home mortgage loans - up 1% quarter-over-quarter; $47,361 in home equity debt - down 0.4% quarter-over-quarter; and $29,939 in student loans - stable quarter-over-quarter.
Card debt was up in 26 states; down in 24. The largest increases and decreases include:
* Vermont - up 6% quarter-over-quarter
* Wisconsin - up 5% quarter-over-quarter
* Mississippi - down 6% quarter-over-quarter
* Utah - down 7% quarter-over-quarter
"With back-to-school shopping and the upcoming holidays, credit card debt is starting to creep up -- a trend that could continue with the new debit fees many banks are starting to implement," said Ken Lin, CEO of CreditKarma.com. "Consumers may turn to their credit card more often to avoid the fees and rack up more credit card debt when they don't pay in full each month as a result."
Scores fell four points during the third quarter to 663 with 22% of states posting a credit score of 650 or lower, which is considered poor. These states include Mississippi (626), South Carolina (638), Alabama (639), Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia (640), Oklahoma (646), Maine and Tennessee (648) and Wyoming (649).
Other key findings:
* Connecticut, New Jersey and Wyoming have the highest amount of credit card debt at $7,666 while Wisconsin ($4,903), Mississippi ($5,575) and Utah ($5,768) have the lowest amount.
* California ($315,999), Hawaii ($300,670) and Maryland ($240,084) posted the highest amount of mortgage debt. The states with the least amount include West Virginia ($103,050), Oklahoma ($106,504) and Mississippi ($108,301).
* Students in Maryland, Illinois and Massachusetts carry the highest amount of student loan debt at $33,359, $33,216 and $32,841 respectively, while students in Utah, Nebraska and Kentucky carry the least at $21,920, $25,440 and $26,559.
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 272,341 CreditKarma.com user scores.
