Some California cities are seeing their residents struggle to pay their credit card bills, where in one instance at least it was due to an increase in borrowing, according to the personal finance platform WalletHub.
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Chula Vista, a city of about 276,000 people, saw credit card delinquencies rise the most out of any other areas that WalletHub examined. The city is seven miles from San Diego. The median age of a resident in the city is 36 years old while the household income is close to $102,000 a year, according to Data USA.
Eighty-five percent more credit card delinquencies were recorded from residents in the city in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the same time a year ago. San Francisco was ranked fourth, with an 84 percent jump in credit card delinquencies. Other cities from the state that were also seeing their residents struggle included Irvine and Santa Anna.
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"One reason why Chula Vista's delinquency rate is increasing so much is that its residents are simply borrowing more, as they had the sixth highest credit card debt increase over the past year, along with the second-highest overall balance," John Kiernan, an editor at WalletHub, said in a note shared with Newsweek.
The report from WalletHub showed that Chula Vista was followed by the capital of the midwestern state of Wisconsin, Madison. People from the area struggled to pay their credit card bills 84 percent more in the first quarter compared to the same time a year ago.
"Madison residents are struggling to pay their credit card bills despite having a relatively low amount of credit card debt and a low year-over-year increase compared to most other major cities," WalletHub said in its report. "Considering that Madison residents generally have good budgeting skills, perhaps the issue is mostly people who were already delinquent becoming delinquent on additional cards."
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The other city that showed its residents struggling with debt was the Texans town of Garland. The number of delinquent credit card accounts there jumped 83 percent.
"Garland residents had the 24th-highest year-over-year credit card debt increase out of more than 180 cities, so that could be one of the reasons for the increased delinquency rate," WalletHub noted. "But it's not just credit card delinquency that residents are struggling with – Garland has the 18th-highest delinquency rate for all types of debt combined."
WalletHub employed data from 100 largest cities in the country where they could find the information to determine which residents are struggling with credit card debt.
Des Moines, Iowa, saw the lowest increase in credit card delinquencies at 19 percent followed by Washington, D.C., at about 32 percent, and Detroit, Michigan, at 34 percent.
About the writer
Omar Mohammed is a Newsweek reporter based in the Greater Boston area. His focus is reporting on the Economy and ... Read more
