The third Thursday of October has been designated as Get Smart About Credit Day. It would have been this past Thursday, but I had other things to write about. From national statistics, it’s evident that Americans are anything but smart concerning credit card debt.
“Collectively, Americans owe $1.14 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday. The average credit card balance is now $6,329, a new report by TransUnion found…
“Credit card delinquency rates are also higher across the board, the New York Fed and TransUnion found. Over the last year, roughly 9.1% of credit card balances transitioned into delinquency, the New York Fed reported.
“Borrowers with revolving debt “are maxing out their credit cards,” said Michele Raneri, vice president and head of U.S. research and consulting at TransUnion, “that’s usually a pretty good indicator that people are stretched.”1
“The share of credit card users who carry a balance has increased to 46% from 39% a year ago, according to Bankrate. “Almost half of card holders are carrying debt from month to month,” Rossman says. “And that debt is as expensive as ever.”
“Lower-income cardholders are more likely to carry a balance. But even among people making $100,000 a year or more, 37% don’t pay their credit card bill in full every month.
“The average interest rate on credit card debt has soared to nearly 20%, from just over 16% at the beginning of last year. That’s the largest one-year increase in the four decades Bankrate has been tracking rates.”2
Again, we don’t seem very smart in this
country!
Let’s put some math to the problem. Suppose you have the average credit card balance of $6,329 at 20% interest and you are paying $200 per month. Assuming you add nothing else to the balance, it will take three years and 10 months to pay this off. You will have paid $2,740.24 in interest, bringing your grand total to $9,069.24. That is only a good deal if you are the credit card company!
Financial guru Dave Ramsey is dead set against credit cards. People claim they need one to give them a credit score. He rightfully assesses the meaning of that score. ““Here me clearly on this: The credit score is NOT a measure of winning financially. It is 100% based on debt. The credit (or FICO) score is simply an ‘I love debt’ rating. No part of the credit score calculation even hints at how much wealth you have.”3
While financial debt has affected many Americans, another type of debt has affected all of humanity. Rather than getting out of the debt, humanity acts like the American government, going deeper and deeper into debt every day.
Romans 4:1-5 asks, “What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? (2) For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. (3) For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (4) Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. (5) But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
According to Matthew 7, the masses of humanity are headed to an eternity in hell because their sin debt has not been paid. Many of those have tried. Some have tried really hard to pay off that debt. They spent their lives working, trying, and doing anything they possibly could to get the debt paid. Some have even gone so far as surrendering their lives to work in third world missions, helping the poorest, sickest, and neediest of humanity, thinking this would surely pay off the debt.
Romans 4 said the debt just got worse. The interest rate on sin is unfathomable. We can never pay the debt. What can be done?
Ephesians 1:3 and 7 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ… (7) In whom 
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” The hymn writer reminds us that “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”
Get smart about your sin debt today. Romans 4:7-8 says, “… Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. (8) Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”
1https://www.cnbc.com/2024/08/08/credit-card-debt-and-delinquencies-are-on-the-rise-reports-finds.html
2https://www.npr.org/2023/01/11/1148122555/credit-card-debt-inflation-interest-rate-payments-federal-reserve
3https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dave-ramsey-says-credit-scores-200616200.html
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