West Coast Cities See Sharpest Increase in Credit Card Debt

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Credit Card Spending Trends in the Past Year

According to Experian data, credit card spending has surged significantly over the past 12 months. Nationwide, the average credit card balance rose to $6,365 by the end of June 2023, marking an 11.7% increase from $5,699 in June 2022.

Regional Variations in Credit Card Balances

All metro areas in the U.S. experienced increases in their average balances since June 2022. However, some cities saw much higher increases than the national average. We will explore these outlier metros at both ends of the spectrum. These 50 cities are among the nearly 400 metropolitan statistical areas tracked by Experian.

Sharp Increases Along the West Coast

The most significant jumps—where average credit card balances increased by 15.4% or more in the past year—occurred in the 25 metros listed below. Nearly all were spread across several states in the Western U.S., with a dense portion of these cities in California. There’s a belt of cities with fast-growing balances starting near California’s southern border in El Centro and extending north through the Central Valley to Fresno, Modesto, and Stockton, then even farther north to cities in Oregon and Washington, all the way to the Canadian border.

Metro Areas With the Highest Percentage Increases in Credit Card Balances

Although not all the cities on this map are metros of a million or more residents—the Bend, Oregon, metro, for instance, had a population of just over 200,000 in 2022—it also includes major cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Portland, Oregon.

Modest Increases in Other Metros

There are also cities where balances are only modestly increasing, all less than 8% since mid-2022. These metros, for the most part, are smaller cities scattered throughout the Midwest and the South.

Lowest Percentage Increases in Credit Card Balances

Among these 25 metros, average credit card balance growth ranged from a modest 4.9% increase (for Casper, Wyoming) to a not quite as modest but still relatively low 8% in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Factors Driving Increases in the Western U.S.

So what’s driving all the increases in the Western U.S.? Did everyone near the Pacific decide to go on a YOLO spending spree?

Most likely, residents in these areas are experiencing jumps in the costs of various big-ticket items due to inflation. While some of these costs, such as rent, vehicle purchases and upkeep, and insurance premiums affected most U.S. consumers in the past couple of years, they’re likely even more pronounced in California, which is facing a perfect storm of household expense hikes.

Challenges Faced by Californians

A non-exhaustive list of challenges Californians are experiencing includes: some home and auto insurers no longer writing policies here, or if they do, sharply increasing premiums; smaller cities seeing an influx of new residents moving away from more expensive metros like Los Angeles and San Francisco, which drives up rental and moving costs; and recent layoffs in the tech sector, disrupting income flows for many once highly compensated workers. Any of these could cause consumers to rely on credit cards more than they may have in the past.

Positive Trends Despite Challenges

Fortunately, according to Experian data, consumers appear to be bending more than breaking. Only five of these 25 metros saw a decline in their average FICO® Scores over the past year, and even then it was only a one-point loss. More broadly, average credit utilization has ticked up 1 percentage point over the past year, from 27% to 28%—not drastic, but lower is always better.

Methodology

The analysis results provided are based on an Experian-created statistically relevant aggregate sampling of our consumer credit database that may include use of the FICO® Score 8 version. Different sampling parameters may generate different findings compared with other similar analyses. Analyzed credit data did not contain personal identification information. Metro areas group counties and cities into specific geographic areas for population censuses and compilations of related statistical data.

FICO® is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the U.S. and other countries.

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