Are American consumers supremely confident or financially foolish? Credit card balances may top $1 trillion for the first time since 2008, which would be a net increase of about $80 billion for 2016. That’s a trend personal finance site WalletHub calls “very ominous.”

Indeed, consumers added a record $34.4 billion in credit card debt in 2016’s second quarter alone, the second-largest increase for that period since 1986. They added $71 billion to their credit card bills last year, the most since 2007. As a result, WalletHub says the average debt level per household will hit $8,500.

To make matters worse, consumers, paid down just $27.5 billion in credit card debt during the first quarter, the lowest first-quarter pay-down since 2008.

“As a result, it’s not a question of whether consumers are weakening financially, but rather how long this trend toward pre-recession habits will last and just how bad it will get,” WalletHub said in a report issued Monday.

WalletHub’s data jibes with trends seen by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. Its 2016 Financial Literacy Survey found that one in three U.S. households carry credit card balances from month to month, with 14 percent indicating that they roll over $2,500 or more in debt…CONTINUE READING