According to research reported by msnmoney: Credit card use in the U.S. is growing, with 14% of Americans holding more than 10 cards, a survey by one of the giant credit-reporting agencies has found. That’s up from 2004, when 10% had more than 10 cards.

The study, released today by Experian, identified two groups of heavy card users: the 14% who own more than 10 cards and another, at times overlapping, 14% who use more than 50% of the credit available to them. This last group alone holds an average of nearly seven cards each, two more than in 2004.

The study was done by randomly selecting and analyzing 3.2 million of the roughly 215 million credit files in the company’s gigantic database, said Pete Bolin, Experian senior analyst.

Among the findings:

1) 51% of Americans who have established credit own two credit cards, up from 49% in 2004.
2) The average American holds four credit cards, up from 3.2 in 2004.
3) The average credit score nationally dropped to 674, from 678 in 2004.
4) The average score for those who use at least 50% of their credit rose to 645 from 631 in 2004.
5) Fewer Americans — 14% — are using 50% or more of their available credit than in 2004, when 16% did. These high users have credit scores about 30 points below the national average.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 11:07 am and is filed under In the News, financial advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.