NEW YORK—The amount of debt held by consumers is being reflected in the number of credit cards in circulation.
The number of credit card accounts in the U.S. is rising quickly and is expected to soon return to prerecession levels, CNBC reported.
The total number of credit cards peaked at just over 496 million in the second quarter of 2008, and fell sharply during the global financial crisis, declining 24% to about 379 million in the third quarter of 2010, CNBC said, citing data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The number of cards in circulation now stands at more than 435 million.
The current trajectory of credit cards in play indicates that the number of credit cards should reach the previous peak by the second quarter of 2018, Michelle Hutchison, a money expert at the personal finance site Finder.com, told CNBC.
"When people get comfortable and complacent with the cost of borrowing money they overspend," she told the news outlet.
Last year, lenders sent out just over four billion card offers in the mail—and offers peaked at six billion in 2005, hitting a post-recession low of 1.8 billion in 2009, CNBC said.