Millennials are too “spooked” to use credit cards, claims Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times.
Data from the Federal Reserve indicates that the percentage of Americans under 35 who hold credit card debt has fallen to its lowest level since 1989.
Why? Millennials are already in debt. In 1995, when there were fewer students going to college, and lower tuition rates for those who did, the average American under 35 had 182 percent less student debt, Popper notes, compared to today. The average millennial now owes $17,200. So maybe student loan payments are too much of a burden to even consider accumulating an additional form of debt.