Here is a look at the decline in revolving consumer debt. But before you get all excited that the decline represents people ditching debt and managing their finances better remember that during this time a large amount of consumer debt was charged off and creditor withdrew credit lines.
A new study by CardHub found that while credit card debt did fall $93 billion in 2009, a cool $83 billion of that drop, or 89%, came from banks charging off loans, not, as people thought, from customers paying down balances. In fact, when you adjust for the charge offs, consumers actually loaded up their credit cards with an additional $21 billion in debt in the last three months of 2009 alone. – Source
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