The median active credit card account at a large U.S. bank had a balance of $375 at the end of the second quarter of 2026. A quarter of active accounts owed $2,000 or more, and one in ten owed at least $5,389.
A quarter earlier the three figures were $351, $1,949 and $5,284; in this series the median is usually lowest in the first quarter and highest in the fourth. A year earlier, in Q2 2025, the median was $369. When the series starts in Q3 2012, it was $301, with a 90th percentile of $4,395.
Balances on active credit card accounts
| Quarter | Median | 75th percentile | 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2012 | $301 | $1,558 | $4,395 |
| Q4 2019 | $388 | $1,822 | $4,694 |
| Q1 2021 | $237 | $1,409 | $3,980 |
| Q2 2024 | $369 | $1,948 | $5,094 |
| Q2 2025 | $369 | $1,980 | $5,251 |
| Q4 2025 | $419 | $2,063 | $5,445 |
| Q1 2026 | $351 | $1,949 | $5,284 |
| Q2 2026 | $375 | $2,000 | $5,389 |
Dollars, not seasonally adjusted, not adjusted for inflation. The CSV has every quarter from Q3 2012.
What this counts
These are balances per account, not per person; many people have several cards, so what a typical person owes across all cards is higher. The Philadelphia Fed counts an account as active if it is open and has had any purchase, payment or balance activity in the last 12 months, so some active accounts have a zero balance. The balance is the total at the end of the billing cycle, including amounts that will be paid in full by the due date, not only debt carried from month to month. The median is the middle account, so it is far below the average, which a small number of large balances pull up.
The Philadelphia Fed builds these figures from account-level data that the largest U.S. banks file with the Federal Reserve on form FR Y-14M. They cover only banks large enough to file it, so smaller banks and credit unions are not included. FRED dates each quarter to its first day.
Source
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, Large Bank Consumer Credit Card Balances (FR Y-14M data), retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (RCCCBACTIVEBALPCT50, RCCCBACTIVEBALPCT75, RCCCBACTIVEBALPCT90); FRED shows the series last updated October 7, 2026. Pulled October 16, 2026. Public domain; citation requested. Our table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Typical Credit Card Balance," My Credit Guide, October 16, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/typical-credit-card-balance/.