Revolving Credit Utilization (75th Percentile)

The Philadelphia Fed sorts active consumer credit card accounts at large banks by how much of each card's limit is in use at quarter end. The account three-quarters of the way up that list was at 50.5% in Q1 2026. That is down 1.2 percentage points from 51.7% in Q1 2025. It was down from 54% in Q4 2025, but that is largely seasonal: this series usually runs highest in the fourth quarter and lowest in the first.

It has been lower than a year earlier for six quarters in a row.

Utilization is the card's balance divided by its credit limit. This is not an average: the Philadelphia Fed's overall figure, total balances over total limits, is a different statistic, and a quarter of accounts sit above the 75th-percentile line. The balance counts everything on the statement, including charges that will be paid in full, so it is not the same as debt carried from month to month.

The data come from monthly reports that the largest U.S. bank holding companies file with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. They cover consumer bank cards, not store charge cards or business cards, and count accounts, not people. The Philadelphia Fed revises past quarters as banks join or leave the reporting group, so older figures in articles may not match the current series.

Credit bureaus advise keeping utilization low, often below 30%, for credit scores. That guidance comes from the bureaus, not from this data. The share of all household debt balances that are behind is tracked in the total delinquency rate.