More Americans are unable to pay their credit card bills in full at the end of the month, with 46% of credit cardholders carrying month-to-month debt, up from 39% in 2022. A recent report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York highlighted how the current 15% year-to-year credit card balance increase represents the largest jump in more than 20 years.

It’s undeniable that ordinary people are facing higher prices across the board, and are increasingly unable to make credit card payments. That’s because payments giants like PayPal are taking advantage of consumers, and we’ve all been letting them get away with it.

As credit card spending in the United States almost entirely benefits Visa and Mastercard, who handle 80% of total transactions, the failure of the competitive model in the credit card industry may be to blame for at least part of the crisis at hand.

(by Bernhard Muller)