New report shows Ohioans have more credit card debt than most Americans

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Brian Hodge described his family’s credit card debt that added up to thousands of dollars.

“Poor financial decision on our part when we were younger, having kids, vehicle problems,” Hodge said.

He certainly isn’t alone. A new report by WalletHub says the average Ohio family has more than $9,000 in credit card debt.

The 8th highest level in the country.

“Not only is it taking a very long time to pay off in some cases, in some cases, you’re seeing, if you’re making minimum payments, it taking 20 years or so to get that balance down, but really, what you’re looking at is impacting the rest of your budget, right, specifically, savings and investing for your future,” Shon Anderson of Anderson Financial Strategies said.

Anderson says any debt with an interest rate of more than 6% is considered toxic and with many credit cards posting rates of 20% or higher that can quickly result in a large balance if not paid off in full every month.

However, there is some good news coming, with the federal government expected to make the first of several rate cuts next week.

“A lot of auto loans, yeah, really in a bottom variable rates or you might have an opportunity to refinance some of those ones at lower rates,” Anderson said.

Some relief that Hodge would have welcomed in his financial journey.

“Don’t spend money you don’t have,” Hodge said. “Don’t, Don’t spend money you don’t have.”

In addition to paying all or most of your credit card debit each month, Anderson suggests looking into a 0% transfer to another card as long as you plan to pay off the debit in the allotted time frame.

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