Interest

The number of Americans carrying a credit card balance is climbing, with many using their credit to cover unexpected or emergency expenses, a new Bankrate report reveals.

The share of credit card holders that carry a balance has increased to 49%—up from 39% in 2021. This is likely due to the increased cost of credit card debt over the past two years. The average interest rate has climbed from an average of 16.45% in 2021 to 24.37% as of March 2024 according to Investopedia.

Of those with credit card debt, 43% say they carry a balance because of an unexpected or emergency expense, most commonly medical bills or car and home repairs. However, financial experts don’t recommend financing these costs with your credit card, if you can help it.

Credit cards tend to have high interest rates compared with other types of loans, which makes them a terrible option for debt financing. This is why experts recommend keeping your outstanding balance at $0 each month, if possible.

Paying only the monthly minimum payment is better than nothing. However, those payments only cover a fraction of the balance owed. The longer you take to pay the balance, the more interest you’ll be charged, since it accrues daily.

The Bookseller magazine runs a competition to find the book with the oddest title of the year. Competition rules stipulate that the work had to be of serious intent and non-fiction. One year, the winner was “Highlights in the History of Concrete.” Runners up included “The Illustrated History of Metal Lunchboxes,” and “The Development of Brain and Behavior in the Chicken.” Special mention was given to “Soviet Bus Stops,” and “Butchering Livestock at Home.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

It is amazing what interests people enough to spend the time and energy to write a book! Why should people be passionate about metal lunchboxes? As Christians, we should be passionate about what God has done for us. Are we passionate enough to pass it on to others? The Apostle Peter says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15)

In his book The Grace Awakening, Charles Swindoll recounts an experience he once had while ministering at a Bible conference. On the first night he had briefly met a couple who seemed to be friendly and quite glad to be at the meetings. However, as the week went by, Swindoll noticed that roughly ten minutes after he would start speaking at every meeting, the husband would be fast asleep!

This experience began to irritate Charles so much that by the time of the final meeting, he was convinced that the man was there only to please his wife, and was "probably a carnal Christian." At the conclusion of the final meeting however, the wife requested to speak to Charles for a few minutes. He figured she wanted to talk to him about her husband's lack of interest in spiritual matters.

Imagine how greatly embarrassed he was when the wife mentioned that her husband had terminal cancer and that they had attended the conference mainly at his request. It was his “final wish” to be at the conference even though the pain medication he was taking made him drowsy. She then said, "He loves the Lord, and you are his favorite Bible teacher. He wanted to be here to meet you and to hear you, no matter what." Charles Swindoll wrote, "I stood there, all alone, as deeply rebuked as I have ever been."

What a dangerous thing it is to judge others. Jesus said, "For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (Matthew 7:2).