Southern States Have Country’s Most Credit Card Debt

Thursday, 03 March 2011 | by Pat's Picks

If credit card debt is your middle name, a move to the South would put you in good company says the San Antonio Express News. The 25 cities with the highest rates of credit card debt—sans three—are found in Southern states. San Antonio topped the list with an average credit card bill of $5177, almost $1000 higher than the national average. Seven Texas cities also made the top 25.

Based on data from Experian, experts say all the cities in the top 25 have one thing in common: low credit scores. Other high-debt cities: Jacksonville, Fla. was second, with an average credit balance of $5,115. Atlanta was third, with $4,960; and Honolulu, with $4,939, was fourth. Dallas/Fort Worth came in fifth with $4,936. On the other side of the spectrum, cities in the Midwest and Northeast: “Wisconsin had three cities on that list (Green Bay at No. 1, Madison at No. 2 and Milwaukee at No. 21). Several states had two: California (San Francisco and Santa Barbara), Minnesota (Minneapolis and the Valley City-Fargo area, which crosses into North Dakota), Oregon (Eugene and Portland) and Iowa (Cedar Rapids and Des Moines).”