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If you're 75 or getting close to it, you might wonder how your credit card balance stacks up against others at the same stage of life. It's a fair question.
Here's what families headed by someone 75 and older are carrying on their cards, and how that compares with other ages.
Editor's note: Figures come from the Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, released October 2026. They cover families headed by someone 75 and older who still owed a balance after their last payment.
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What's the average credit card balance for someone 75 or older?
Median balance: $2,500
Average balance: $6,500
Among families headed by someone 75 and older who carry a credit card balance, the median balance is $2,500, according to the Federal Reserve's 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances. The average, or mean, balance for that same group is $6,500.
Those two numbers tell different stories. The median reflects the family in the middle of the pack, while the average gets pulled upward by a smaller number of families carrying much larger balances. Both figures count only families that still owed something after their last payment, not every family in this age group.
What these balances do and don't include
The balance counted here is what's left over after the family's last payment, which means balances that get paid off in full each month don't count at all. The age attached to each figure is the age of the person who heads the family.
The survey also measures total debt for this age group, which covers borrowing beyond credit cards. The balances above are credit card debt only.
How many families 75 and up actually carry a balance
Share carrying a balance: 27.6%
Not every family headed by someone 75 or older carries a credit card balance. According to the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances, 27.6% of families in this age group do. That means the median and average above describe just over a quarter of families in this age band — the ones who had an unpaid balance after their last payment, not everyone 75 and up.
Most families in this age group aren't carrying card debt at all, based on this survey.
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How families 75 and up compare with other ages
Credit card balances shift quite a bit across age groups in the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances. Here's how families headed by someone 75 and older compare with those just a bit younger, and with families nationally.
Families headed by someone 65 to 74 who carry a balance have a median of $3,000 and an average of $8,000, with 37.8% of families in that band carrying a balance at all. Across all families nationally who carry a balance, the median is $3,100, and the average is $8,000, with 44.7% of all families carrying one.
Further down the age range, families headed by someone 55 to 64 who carry a balance have a median of $4,200 and an average of $9,100. Families headed by someone 45 to 54 show a median of $5,100 and an average of $11,400, the highest median of any age band in this data. Balances run lower among families headed by someone under 35 (median $2,200, average $4,900) and 35 to 44 (median $3,000, average $7,800), though a bigger share of those younger families carry a balance than among families 75 and up, at 48.2% and 51.9% respectively.
What to do about your own balance
- Check your statement for the interest rate you're actually paying, since even small differences add up over time.
- List out every balance you're carrying so you know the full picture before making a plan.
- Pay down the card with the highest rate first, then move to the next one.
- Ask your card issuer whether a lower rate or a hardship plan is available if you're carrying a balance month to month.
- Set up automatic payments for at least the minimum, so a missed payment doesn't add extra fees or damage your credit.
Bottom line
Families headed by someone 75 and older who carry a credit card balance have a median balance of $2,500 and an average of $6,500, according to the 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances. Just 27.6% of families in this age group carry a balance at all, a smaller share than any other age band in this data.
Families headed by someone 65 to 74 show a higher median ($3,000) and average ($8,000), so balances among the 75-and-up group run lower by comparison.
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