Credit cards: putting it on plastic

Americans' love affair with credit cards has continued unabated recently, with the average credit card debt per household reaching a record $9312 in 2004. That's up a whopping 116 percent over the past 10 years.

And it's expensive debt too: average annual percentage rates (APRs) for September rose to 11.84 percent, compared to 11.56 percent a month earlier.

Americans paid over $127 billion in household bills on credit and debit cards last year, and that number is predicted to top $161 billion in 2005, according to CardWeb.com.

Many households have far more plastic than you could fit in a wallet. The average number of bank cards per cardholding household is 19.3 -- typically eight bank cards, eight retail cards and three debit cards.

Bank card delinquencies reached an all-time high in the past quarter, according to ConsumerFlow.com, with 4.81% of accounts missing minimum payments. The Web site's analysts attribute the increase to high energy prices as well as changes making it more difficult to file for personal -- or Chapter 7 -- bankruptcies.

But consumers have seen better interest rates elsewhere, and are increasingly using home refinancing and other fixed rate vehicles.

"They're moving away from bank cards and credit cards -- short-term installment debt -- into various forms of mortgage borrowing with lower interest rates and long terms," said Hoyt.