Millennials are shying away from credit cards at a considerable rate, and that could put them at a disadvantage in the future.
Federal Reserve data shows that the percentage of Americans under 35 who hold credit-card debt has fallen to its lowest level since 1989, when the Fed began collecting data in a standardized way, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
Early use of credit cards can help young Americans make big purchases financed by debt, but without a credit history, it could be harder for millennials to take out a home mortgage, for example.
“It will probably take them longer to get access to credit,” Gregory Elliehausen, an economist at the Federal Reserve, told the New York Times.
That said, Americans’ use of credit cards is creeping up. Largely driven by credit cards and auto loans, household debt rose 0.3% to $12.29 trillion during the second quarter of 2016, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
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