(Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) number comes out at 8:30am on September 13th, and if predictions are right, it's not good. The forecasters from major Wall Street firms expect the August CPI to show the headline index rose 0.6% in July. That would bring the 12-month rate to 3.6% from the current 3.2%. Well above the target, which is 2%. I'll explain how this is crushing Florida residents with credit card debt in a bit.
So essentially, everything is 3.6% more expensive than it was a year ago. That, of course, is added to the 8.3% inflation reading from August 2022. When interest compounds in your bank account, that's good. When it compounds with inflation, that's bad. Very bad. As you can see by the chart, people are running out of money in their savings.
The blue line represents savings, and the spikes up that you see were when the government sent those stimulus checks.
Yeah, that money is now gone. And now, credit card debt is mounting.
The personal-finance website WalletHub released its latest rankings of the States with the Largest & Smallest Credit Card Debt Increases in Q2, based on newly released data from the Federal Reserve.Florida Stats:
- Increase in Florida Debt: The average credit card debt in Florida increased by $3,087,038,580 in Q2 2023.
- Average Florida Household Debt: The average household in Florida owes $9,053 in credit card debt.
- Florida Rank: Florida’s credit card debt increase ranks as the 3rd highest in the nation.
| Overall Rank* | State | Household Credit Card Debt | Household Credit Card Debt Increase | Total Credit Card Debt | Total Credit Card Debt Increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | $9,796 | $409 | $152,707,028,131 | $5,412,310,336 |
| 2 | Texas | $9,216 | $385 | $111,299,095,554 | $3,944,711,993 |
| 3 | Florida | $9,053 | $378 | $87,100,047,481 | $3,087,038,580 |
| 4 | New York | $8,964 | $375 | $79,608,721,593 | $2,821,527,680 |
| 5 | Illinois | $8,046 | $336 | $46,785,492,452 | $1,658,192,210 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | $7,517 | $314 | $45,638,259,152 | $1,617,531,457 |
| 7 | Georgia | $8,976 | $375 | $41,132,589,305 | $1,457,839,505 |
| 8 | Ohio | $6,862 | $287 | $38,478,365,000 | $1,363,767,308 |
| 9 | New Jersey | $9,468 | $396 | $37,935,342,142 | $1,344,521,250 |
| 10 | North Carolina | $7,671 | $321 | $36,505,559,579 | $1,293,846,261 |
So the average household in Florida is now carrying a whopping $9,053 in credit card debt. Here's where it gets worse.
The Federal Government needs to get inflation under control and the route they've taken is interest rate increases. Every time they increase rates, the credit card companies respond by raising their rates, too. making those difficult to make credit card payments even more difficult.
So for Florida, it's inflation + rising credit card interest rates + rising insurance + rising rents = :(
