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Americans' Rate of Credit Defaults, Another Day Older And Deeper In Debt

by RikCharbonneaux. To Your Health  
05/21/25
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Americans' Rate of Credit Defaults: “Another Day Older 

And Deeper In Debt”

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.”  Proverbs 22:7 NIV

With USA home mortgage delinquency rates at 4% and delinquency rates on all loans up 20% since 2022, one should think twice before getting deeper in debt through their credit cards.

Many of us who did not heed the warnings of increased credit card-related defaults over the past two years have run up our credit card debt to the point that we cannot resolve it and lose our lines of credit. For this reason, some of us cannot get another credit card.

The current response of stores to help those who no longer qualify for a credit card is to offer a “four interest-free payments” line of credit, if you qualify.  This is a new form of “buy now, pay later,” where people are already in default on their balances.

With the current percentage of US credit card accounts delinquent by more than 90 days being 12%, and with the  “four easy payments” line of credit adding fuel to the current level of default situation, I am reminded of the chorus lyrics to the old song “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford:

“You load sixteen tons, what do you get?

Another day older and deeper in debt.

Saint Peter, don’t you call me, 'cause I can’t go,

I owe my soul to the company store.*

If you are one of those deep in credit card debt and hovering on default, try to do what you can to avoid what can be a very bad situation.

*I own West Virginia coal mine script in 1-cent, 5-cent, 10-cent, 25-cent, 50-cent, and 1-dollar denominations.  They represent a clear statement of what it means to be held captive to the lender.