Credit Card Charges Hit $1 Trillion in ’96

Americans charged more than $1 trillion on credit cards in 1996, and about one-third of the total was being paid off in installments, a consumer group found.

The Consumer Federation of America released a study Tuesday estimating that 60 million households were carrying credit card balances averaging $6,000.

The federation said credit card debt reached $374 billion to $396 billion by the end of the year.

The group chided consumers for incurring so much debt and card issuers for “marketing tactics that reward those who carry balances and penalize those who pay in full.”

“We don’t object to any households holding credit cards,” the group’s executive director, Stephen Brobeck, said. “It is how many credit cards are being issued and what the credit card limits are that are the issue.”