Credit card debt is at an all-time high in America. Half of all Americans with a credit card have carried a balance in the last year, and one in three Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings. Plus, the cost of this debt is increasing, with high interest rates becoming the norm. It can be easy to view credit card debt as a personal failure, a result of overspending on non-essentials, and while that’s true in a lot of cases, nearly a third of credit card holders in the U.S. say they're using their credit cards to cover necessities like rent, food or medical bills. So, while credit card debt seems like something to avoid at all costs, it seems like having access to credit is indispensable in staying financially afloat. On this episode of Top of Mind, how do we make sense of credit card debt in America? How much personal responsibility do Americans have for this debt? What are the unintended consequences of proposed efforts to make credit card debt less expensive? And how can consumers navigate a system designed to promote debt?

Guests:
Jamie Feldman, journalist and co-host of Debt Heads: A Podcast About Money (https://debtheadspodcast.com/)
Elena Botella, author of Delinquent: Inside America’s Debt Machine (https://elenabotella.com/books)
Tris, credit card user
Nicholas Anthony, policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives (https://www.cato.org/people/nicholas-anthony)
Matt Schulz, Chief Consumer Finance Analyst at LendingTree and author of Ask Questions, Save Money, Make More: How to Take Control of Your Financial Life (https://www.mattschulz.com/book/)
Michael Reynolds, certified financial planner and owner of Elevation Financial (https://www.elevationfinancial.com/about)

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction: The Credit Card Conundrum
00:48 Jamie's Debt Journey
03:35 The Reality of Credit Card Debt in America
09:23 Elena Botte's Insider Perspective
15:16 The Evolution of Consumer Credit
25:13 Tris' Story: Overcoming Financial Hurdles
26:02 Navig