3. Student debt strongly associated with credit card troubles
Share of households that owed any student debt in 2019
A split bar chart the relationship between student debt and financial stress indicators, including skipping card payments due to financial difficulties, using payday loans, paying the minimum credit card balance, owned many credit cards, and having been refused a credit card. Across all indicators, the share of households with student debt rose with degrees of financial distress. For example, 9.6% of people paying off their full card balance had student debt, while 20.8% of those paying the minimum balance were student debtholders.