Study: More people paying down credit card debt

As the economy has recovered in recent months, more Americans are getting more money to pay back some of the debt they’ve incurred over the last year or two.

According to a new study conducted by the consumer website BillShrink, 67 percent of the 220,000 people surveyed said they are payingoff their credit card balance in full every month. A similar study conducted last year found only 24 percent of respondents did so. BillShrink said those numbers may be backed up by Federal Reserve figures that have found consumer debt declined by $113 billion in the same period.

The survey also found that the rate of people paying off their debt increased dramatically in the last four months, which is directly attributed to the passage of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act around the same time.

According to the Federal Reserve, the average consumer carries about $8,000 in debt of some kind – be it car loans, credit card balances or a mortgage – for a national total of $2.448 trillion.