PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- Americans put over $2.2 trillion on their major credit cards for purchases and cash advances, according to CardTrak.com, a Web site which tracks card trends.
CardTrak said that this means 2007 was the second consecutive year that purchases on credit cards have topped $2 trillion, which is of even greater note given that in 1997 American's spent a relatively paltry $889 billion on their major credit cards, according to the firm's data.
CardTrak didn't attribute the credit card spending to any specific cause but noted that the growth of purchases on credit is still outpaced, on a percentage basis, by the growth in spending with debit cards. CardTrak suggested the debit spending was likely the result of the steadily increasing acceptance of cards as a payment vehicle by both U.S. consumers and companies.
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