Bridgeport worst in US credit card debt report

Hartford also ranks near the bottom in LendingTree survey

A new report from an online lending platform concluded Bridgeport area residents carry more credit card debt than anyone else in the country.

LendingTree found 22.9 percent of card holders in the Bridgeport metro area had a balance of more than $10,000. And 1.9 percent had credit card debt exceeding $50,000. Both were tops among the nation’s 100 biggest metros.

The Hartford metro area didn’t fare much better, according to the report. In that city, 18.5 percent of credit card holders had balances of more than $10,000 and 0.9 percent had a balance of more than $50,000.

“There’s never just one reason for why certain cities struggle with credit card debt and others handle it better,” LendingTree said in its report. “However, in this survey, one common thread is shared among many of the top cities: high income inequality. Of the five metro areas with the highest percentage of cardholders with five-figure card balances, three — Bridgeport, New York and Los Angeles — are among those with the biggest income inequalities in the nation. A 2018 report from the Brookings Institution showed that the Bridgeport metro area had the greatest income inequality of any of the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in 2016, with NewYork and Los Angeles coming in second and fourth, respectively.”

The metro areas with the smallest percentage of credit card holders carrying balances greater than $10,000 were Chattanooga, Tenn., (12.8 percent); Colorado Springs, Colo., (12.8 percent); Greensboro, N.C., (12.8 percent); Indianapolis (12.4 percent); and WinstonSalem, N.C. (12.4 percent).

LendingTree prepared the report by using a sample of credit reports from more than 1.2 million of its users. Their total credit card balances were calculated and the results were aggregated across the 100 largest metro areas.