Americans owed $5.20 trillion in consumer credit in August 2026, seasonally adjusted, according to the Federal Reserve: $1.35 trillion in revolving credit, mostly credit cards, and $3.84 trillion in nonrevolving loans such as auto and student loans. Revolving credit was 26.0% of the total. The total was 2.7% higher than in August 2025.
The Fed’s quarterly memo figures put student loans at $1.86 trillion and auto loans at $1.57 trillion at the end of June 2026. The federal government, through its student loan programs, was owed $1.62 trillion in August, about 31% of all consumer credit. Revolving credit on its own, with its full monthly history, is on our revolving consumer credit page.
Consumer credit by type
| Type of credit | Outstanding, end of June 2026 | End of June 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Revolving (mostly credit cards) | $1,309.0B | $1,256.3B |
| Student loans | $1,861.8B | $1,802.6B |
| Motor vehicle loans | $1,574.6B | $1,560.8B |
| Nonrevolving, all types | $3,813.9B | $3,739.4B |
| Total consumer credit | $5,122.9B | $4,995.7B |
Billions of dollars, not seasonally adjusted. Student and auto loans are memo items the Fed publishes for quarter-end months. They are measured differently from the main series: the Fed says the student loan figure includes some balances that are not in the nonrevolving total, and the auto figure covers cars and light trucks for personal use only. So they cannot be subtracted from nonrevolving credit to get the rest. The CSV also has year-end levels from 2021 and the latest months.
Who holds consumer credit
| Holder | Outstanding, Aug 2026 | Share of total | Revolving | Nonrevolving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Depository institutions | $2,099.9B | 40.7% | $1,211.1B | $888.9B |
| Finance companies | $697.3B | 13.5% | $15.3B | $681.9B |
| Credit unions | $734.1B | 14.2% | $88.8B | $645.3B |
| Federal government | $1,621.5B | 31.4% | none | $1,621.5B |
| Nonprofit and educational institutions | $10.1B | 0.2% | none | $10.1B |
August 2026, billions of dollars, not seasonally adjusted, so the total ($5,162.9 billion) differs from the seasonally adjusted figure above. Depository institutions are banks and savings institutions. Finance companies include the finance arms of carmakers and other lenders that are not banks. The federal government figure is student loans the Department of Education made or bought. Shares are our calculation. Holders are in the same CSV.
Two Fed numbers for consumer credit: G.19 and Z.1
The Fed’s quarterly Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1) list household and nonprofit consumer credit at $5.168 trillion at the end of June 2026 (FRED series HCCSDODNS). That is not a separate measurement. The Fed’s own series description says the Z.1 level is taken from the G.19 release. The two differ only because of timing: Z.1 was published on September 11, 2026, and the October 7 G.19 release revised June upward. For earlier quarters the two match.
| Quarter | Z.1 household consumer credit | G.19 total, end of quarter (current) | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 2025 | $5,098.8B | $5,098.8B | 0.0 |
| Q1 2026 | $5,131.4B | $5,131.4B | 0.0 |
| Q2 2026 | $5,168.1B | $5,170.8B | −$2.6B |
Billions of dollars. FRED dates Z.1 quarters to their first day; we show them at the end of the quarter they describe. Differences are our subtraction. The monthly CSV has G.19 totals from 1943 with the Z.1 level at each quarter end.
Either way, consumer credit leaves out mortgages and home equity lines, so it is far smaller than total household debt. The New York Fed’s household debt figure, from credit reports, includes mortgages; Z.1 also has a total household debt line that does.
What this counts
G.19 covers credit extended to individuals that is not secured by real estate, whether a lender holds it or has sold it into a securitization. The Fed revises recent months as more data come in, and the figures are not adjusted for inflation. The Fed notes that the levels can contain breaks caused by changes in its source data, and its percent changes are adjusted to remove them. Large one-month moves in the levels, such as the drop between November and December 2024, can reflect such breaks rather than borrowing.
Source
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, G.19 Consumer Credit, October 7, 2026 release (levels by holder and type, from the release tables) and series TOTALSL, REVOLSL and NONREVSL; Financial Accounts of the United States (Z.1), series HCCSDODNS, and the Z.1 series analyzer for LA153166000. FRED series retrieved from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis on October 16, 2026. Public domain; the Fed asks for citation. Our tables are available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Total Consumer Credit," My Credit Guide, October 16, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/total-consumer-credit/.