While real income gains were realized during the economic boom over the latter half of the 1990s, the average American's credit card debt rose faster than ever before. While balances grew faster for white families than for African-American and Hispanic families, all groups experienced a significant rise in debt between 1992 and 2001. African-American and Hispanic families were more likely, overall, to carry a credit card balance than whites. Costly Credit, the fourth in a series of briefing papers documenting the dramatic rise in credit card debt, provides a snapshot of these trends by race between 1992 and 2001.
