Americans were paying non-mortgage interest at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $618.9 billion in August 2026, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That was 6.3% more than in August 2025 ($582.1 billion) and 11.1% more than in August 2024. At the end of 2019 the rate was $351.5 billion.
The highest month in the series is June 2026, at $620.2 billion; July and August were slightly lower.
Personal interest payments by month
| Month | Personal interest payments (annual rate) | Change from a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| December 2019 | $351.5B | 6.8% |
| December 2020 | $244.2B | -30.5% |
| December 2021 | $275.2B | 12.7% |
| December 2022 | $417.8B | 51.8% |
| December 2023 | $513.7B | 23.0% |
| August 2024 | $557.1B | 8.9% |
| August 2025 | $582.1B | 4.5% |
| June 2026 | $620.2B | 10.4% |
| July 2026 | $619.5B | 8.3% |
| August 2026 | $618.9B | 6.3% |
Billions of dollars, seasonally adjusted at an annual rate. The CSV has every month from January 1959. Year-over-year changes are our calculation.
What this counts
BEA defines personal interest payments as "non-mortgage interest paid by persons". That covers interest on credit cards, auto loans, student loans and other consumer debt; mortgage interest is left out. An annual rate means the monthly figure is scaled up to a full year, so $618.9 billion is not what was paid in August alone. The figure is not adjusted for inflation, and BEA revises recent months. To see payments relative to income, see debt payments as a share of income.
Source
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Personal interest payments (B069RC1), retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; FRED shows the series last updated September 30, 2026. Definition from the BEA glossary. Pulled October 15, 2026. Public domain. Our table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Interest Americans Pay on Consumer Debt," My Credit Guide, October 15, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/consumer-interest-payments/.