Airfare pain eases as pricing power swings back to passengers

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Angus Whitley | Bloomberg News (TNS)

Qantas Airways Ltd., not known for usually offering big discounts, has cut prices more than six times this year. Virgin Australia is averaging at least one fare sale a month. Even Ryanair Holdings Plc, which practically invented affordable European air travel, says flights are getting cheaper.

Passengers around the world are winning some respite from the fare madness that followed the pandemic — and further price declines are coming.

It’s a partial rebalancing of power from the post-COVID demand surge that gave airlines almost free rein over fares. As travel restrictions lifted and the world rushed to reconnect, prices ballooned for the reduced number of seats that were available. Premium fares reached more than $20,000.

Now, falling fares reflect the growing number of international flights on offer, particularly in Asia and Europe, and a traveling public that is increasingly cost conscious.

“It’s not just a blip, it’s a global trend,” said James Kavanagh, chief executive officer of leisure at Brisbane-based travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd. “Airlines certainly don’t have all the power at the moment.”

International fares globally fell 6% in the first six months of 2024 from the year-ago period, Flight Centre said. Flights out of Australia were 13% cheaper, while fares to Indonesia — home to Bali, one of Australia’s favorite getaways — slumped 18%, Flight Centre said.

Prices will continue to fall as the cost-of-living crisis makes consumers more price-sensitive, Kavanagh said. With under-pressure airlines seeking to fill planes months before departure, there are deals for early bookers, he said, citing 10-day tours to China, including flights and accommodation, on offer for A$999 ($658).

Greater Bay Airlines, which flies between Hong Kong and a handful of destinations around Asia, is offering hundreds of return flights for just HK$20 ($2.56) each. Qantas, where fares usually align with its full-service brand, cut the price of more than one million seats on domestic flights to as little as A$109. The snap offer was the airline’s sixth local sale of the year.

To be sure, the trend isn’t uniform. Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, for example, said in an interview that passenger demand was accelerating for the Gulf airline.

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At the same time, a shortage of commercial aircraft and ruptures to aviation’s supply chain are constraining capacity. Wait times for the most popular aircraft from Boeing Co. and Airbus SE are years long. Airbus CEO Guillaume Faury said at the Farnborough Air Show on that the manufacturer is turning down some orders because of its huge backlog. To some degree, these factors limit how far ticket prices can fall.

All the same, declining fares are troubling some airline bosses and unsettling investors. The Bloomberg World Airlines Index, which includes American Airlines Group Inc., Air China Ltd. and Deutsche Lufthansa AG, is down around 15% in the past 12 months.

Emirates President Tim Clark, in an interview at the Farnborough Air Show, lashed out at the way some airlines have suddenly cut fares, warning it risked triggering “a race to the bottom.”

“It only takes one of the big players to do it and everyone goes the same way,” Clark said. “They need to hold their nerve. The characteristics of the segments that drive our business have altered, so align your price points to that and it’s a growing story, not a shrinking story.”

“As far as I’m concerned, as long as the A380 to Heathrow is full six times a day and I can get the kind of yield I’m getting, I’m not going to change,” he said.

Ryanair recently cut its outlook for ticket prices in the crucial summer travel period and said fares will be “materially lower.” Consumers have become “just a little bit more frugal,” the airline’s chief financial officer, Neil Sorahan, said on a call. Shares in Ryanair are down about 26% this year.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Miles Davis’ ‘Kind of Blue’ is, at 65, a shape-shifting album that transcends time and genre

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From Lana Del Rey, John Legend and Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar to the members of Radiohead and guitar legends Carlos Santana, Duane Allman and Jerry Garcia, the number of musicians who have cited Miles Davis and his landmark 1959 release, “Kind of Blue,” as prime inspirations grows larger by the year.

“It’s a pioneering album that was a turning point in jazz and it’s also a great bridge to classical and world music,” said pianist and Pulitzer Prize-winning opera composer Anthony Davis.

“I’m not a hardcore jazz fan, but I love ‘Kind of Blue’,” said Melissa Etheridge.

“Discussing Miles makes you feel like a dime-store novelist talking about Shakespeare,” Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood said in a 2001 San Diego Union-Tribune interview. “We’ve taken and stolen from him shamelessly, not just musically, but in terms of his attitude of moving things forward.”

American jazz trumpeter and composer Miles Davis (1926-1991), sits with his instrument during a studio recording session, October 1959. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images/TNS)

Such sentiments come as no surprise to trumpet dynamo and San Diego Symphony jazz curator Gilbert Castellanos, who on Aug. 17 will lead “Miles Davis: Kind of Blue — In Concert” at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. Featuring a talent-packed sextet that includes saxophonist Joel Frahm, pianist Donald Vega and drummer Willie Jones III, it will be the sequel to Castellanos’ sold-out 2018 “Kind of Blue” tribute concert at Jacobs Music Center’s Copley Symphony Hall.

“Experiencing ‘Kind of Blue’ is like floating on a cloud in the best dream ever, except that it’s real,” said Castellanos, a veteran local trumpeter and founder of the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory.

“You don’t have to be a jazz fan, or know anything about jazz, to love ‘Kind of Blue.’ Anyone can listen to it and really enjoy it. That is why Miles Davis is heavily responsible for turning a lot of people on to jazz.”

A lot, indeed.

Pink Floyd to Q-Tip

Since its release on Aug. 15, 1959, “Kind of Blue” has become the best-selling jazz album of all time — and the most widely acclaimed — embraced equally by jazz and non-jazz artists alike.

Both Steely Dan co-founder Donald Fagen and A Tribe Called Quest co-founder Q-Tip have called the album “the bible” for music. Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright cited “Kind of Blue” as a prime influence on the structure and tone of parts of Floyd’s classic 1973 album, “Dark Side of the Moon.”

Former Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia was such a big fan that he and mandolinist David Grisman recorded three versions of “Kind of Blue’s” sublime opening number, “So What,” for their joint 1998 album — also titled “So What” — which was released three years after Garcia’s death.

Featuring Davis with a peerless lineup of saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian “Cannonball” Adderly, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Jimmy Cobb and alternating pianists Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, “Kind of Blue” is like nothing else in jazz, then or now. The album was instrumental in encouraging Coltrane to explore increasingly daring new sonic vistas for the remainder of his career.

Clocking it at 46 minutes, “Kind of Blue” works equally well as the sole focus for contemplative listening, a plush aural cushion for a lunch or dinner — foreground or background — and just about anything in between.

“The beauty of ‘Kind of Blue’ is that it is this incredible doorway and invitation for anyone to come in and explore this music. But even if you don’t go any further, you will still have a wonderful experience,” said jazz scholar Ashley Kahn, the author of the best-selling 2000 book, “Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece.”

Kahn has also written two books about saxophone giant Coltrane, one of the key players on “Kind of Blue.” The New Jersey-based Kahn is quick to cite the album as a definitive masterpiece.

“It features an unbelievable, once-in-a-lifetime aggregation of such immortal players and such distinctive songs.” he said. “Every time they touched their instruments to solo on ‘Kind of Blue,’ what resulted was timeless. The album transcended its time and its genre.”

Recorded in just nine hours on March 2 and April 22, 1959, “Kind of Blue” boasts five indelible songs that, to this day, are performed by jazz ensembles around the world — “So What,” “Freddie Freeloader,” “Blue in Green,” “All Blues” and “Flamenco Sketches.” It is an album on which nuance, beauty and impeccably calibrated group improvisations trump the high-octane virtuosity and velocity that came to the fore with the bebop revolution that dominated jazz from the early 1940s to at least the mid-1950s.

Gorgeous, unhurried melodies abound on “Kind of Blue,” which does not have a single up-tempo song. Conventional chord sequences and harmonies are put aside in favor of a modal approach that — much like the ragas that are foundational in the classical music of India — focus on scales, or modes, specifically the eight notes that go from one octave to the next.

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis teaches a course at UC San Diego that focuses on the five most pivotal jazz albums released in 1959, including Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue.” (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)

‘Incredibly lyrical’

Davis was introduced to the concept by noted composer and musical theorist George Russell, who spent much of the 1950s quietly exploring the possibilities of a modal jazz approach. It was a game-changing innovation that other artists had delved into. But they had done so only briefly and tentatively, let alone on an epic, game-changing album like “Kind of Blue.”

“When you go this way, you can go on forever,” Davis told music critic Nat Hentoff in 1958. “You don’t have to worry about (chord) changes, and you can do more with time (signatures). It becomes a challenge to see how melodically inventive you are. … I think a movement in jazz is beginning, away from the conventional string of chords and a return to emphasis on melodic rather than harmonic variations. There will be fewer chords but infinite possibilities as to what to do with them.”

Those infinite possibilities provided a launching pad for “Kind of Blue.” But rather than meander here, there and everywhere, the album is a marvel of seemingly opposite musical values: precision and fluidity; focus and surprise; risk and a shared sense of purpose.

Accordingly, much of “Kind of Blue” was created spontaneously as it was being recorded, with Davis providing only bare sketches and ideas of what he wanted his musicians to do. Almost all the selections on the “Kind of Blue” are first-take recordings, the better to achieve Davis’ goal of having his band members focus on the deeply felt emotions of the songs rather than over-thinking them.

“It was primarily a one-take which reflects ‘the first thought is the best thought’ aesthetic that comes out of jazz but is really a classic Miles-ian thing,” said author Kahn.

“There’s a perfect storm quality to the album: Miles in his prime with a great, once-in-a-lifetime band; first-rate audio engineers; a terrific record label, Columbia, that treated all musicians in all genres equally well and launched ‘Lind of Blue’ into the world. Within two to three years, it was already the best-selling album in jazz, and — a few years after that — was influencing everyone from (pioneering minimalist composer La Monte Young to the Allman Brothers and, of course, many, many jazz artists.”

Had author Aldous Huxley’s 1954 book not been titled “The Doors of Perception,” it might have made a good subtitle for what remains to this day Davis’ most widely embraced and acclaimed recording.

“The modal music on ‘Kind of Blue’ opened up a whole world of engagement,” said Pulitzer Prize-winning opera composer Anthony Davis. An accomplished jazz pianist, he teaches a course at UC San Diego that focuses on “Kind of Blue” and four other standout jazz albums released in 1959. He is not related to Miles Davis, who died in 1991 at the age of 65.

” ‘Kind of Blue’ not only looks beyond diatonic harmonies,” Anthony Davis said, “but also to world music and to classical music, especially the compositions of Debussy and Ravel, who were a major influence on the album. Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand provided some of the inspiration for ‘All Blues’ on ‘Kind of Blue.’

“Plus, the album is incredibly lyrical. Miles’ playing is just so pristine and the solos are so memorable. So is the contrast between the playing of Coltrane and Cannonball, and Bill Evans and Wynton Kelly, whose solos I transcribed a lot when I was a student at Yale. The cyclical 10-bar structure on ‘Blue in Green’ is very innovative. And the album is incredibly lyrical and speaks in a very clear way.”

That clarity and lyricism also had a profound influence on 1970’s “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” one of the most beloved songs by The Allman Brothers Band. Its graceful, spiraling melodies, uncluttered rhythms and deeply felt solos owe a major debt to “Kind of Blue,” as guitarist Duane Allman acknowledged at the time to Rolling Stone writer Robert Palmer.

“You know, that kind of playing comes from Miles and Coltrane, and particularly ‘Kind Of Blue’,” Allman said. “I’ve listened to that album so many times that for the past couple of years, I haven’t hardly listened to anything else.”

For trumpeter Castellanos, hearing “Kind of Blue” for the first time as an eighth-grade student in Fresno was life-changing.

“It was so inspiring and it really knocked my socks off!” he recalled. “I remember going home from school that day and trying to figure out how Miles got that muted sound, I had the same trumpet mute, but couldn’t figure out what he was doing make it sound so warm and beautiful.

“The trumpeters I’d been listening to then, like Freddie Hubbard and Maynard Ferguson, were all about playing fast and loud. And then, with ‘Kind of Blue,’ I heard the exact opposite of that. Miles’ playing had the quality of a human voice whispering to you. That changed my whole approach to the trumpet, and that was the hardest thing to learn. Even at the age I am now, in my early 50s, it’s difficult to make the trumpet sound so warm and pretty.”

Given how familiar many Davis fans are with literally every note on “Kind of Blue,” including all the solos, performing it here live on stage raises intriguing questions.

Will Castellanos and his band mates reverently play the music, note for note, at their Aug. 17 Shell concert? (The first half will feature other selections from Davis’ expansive repertoire.)

Will they take liberties to extend the album in real time, using the recorded version as a launching pad? Or will they combine both approaches in a way that is respectful of “Kind of Blue,” but not beholden to it? Or is it a sacrilege to change the music in any way?

“It is absolutely not a sacrilege if we don’t play it note for note,” Castellanos replied.

“Of course, we will play the melodies absolutely like they are on the album, with a frontline of two saxophones and trumpet. But what I’m really looking forward to is how these phenomenal musicians approach ‘Kind of Blue’ from their own perspectives as they improvise over the beautiful melodies.

“I have four copies of the album including a rare, original first-pressing in mono. For me, ‘Kind of Blue’ could be the soundtrack to anyone’s life.”

Singing Miles Davis’ praises

Many musicians have happily cited Miles Davis as a major inspiration in interviews over the years with the San Diego Union-Tribune. Here are some of their comments.

David Bowie: “Miles genuinely did more than anyone to create what avenues you can dare to walk in music. He made extraordinary breakthroughs.”

Lenny Kravitz: “People talk about what’s new in music, and about taking it really far out. And I’m like: ‘Man, I haven’t heard anybody take it further out than Miles, and that was years ago.’ “

Keyboard legend Chick Corea: “The best lesson Miles gave all of us was his total artistic integrity. Anything he wanted to do, musically, and give to an audience, he would not water it down one inch. He wouldn’t let pressures from the world around him change anything he was doing. And he changed the world.”

Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron: “In every kind of creative musical endeavor, you want to be fearless. And that’s what Miles instilled in me — the fact that you can be as fearless as you’re able to be. I’ve been directly inspired and influenced by him.”

Bass great Dave Holland: “Having the chance to play with Miles was like getting a call from Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong. He was always his own person, and not afraid to take a stand when he wanted to. He would always take a new path and see where it would take him. Miles was always developing and making it new, every night.”

Singer-songwriter David Gray: “Miles was a brilliant catalyst who grew music around him, and he was so sophisticated and ahead of his time. He created this space where strange but beautiful flowers bloomed. And as a band leader, he’s one of the greats of the 20th century. He expanded the world of music countless times, and now we take it all for granted.”

Moving in retirement? 5 things to ponder before you pack

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By Kate Ashford | NerdWallet

More than 338,000 Americans moved for retirement in 2023, according to a January study from HireAHelper, a moving-services marketplace. And a quarter of them changed states, the study found.

Relocating in retirement isn’t simple. There are things to ponder, like whether you need new health insurance, how your new state taxes your income, whether a city has good health care and whether the culture is a match.

Kyle Newell, a certified financial planner (CFP) in Winter Garden, Florida, has a client who moved from Tampa, Florida, to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, where she lived for six months before deciding she wanted to move to Minnesota to be closer to family.

Thankfully, she made money on all the buying and selling, says Newell, who encourages clients to spend time where they plan to move to make sure it’s the best spot for them. It could be that you love the feeling of a certain place, he says, but it’s because you associate it with being on vacation, and living there is different.

Here are some things to think about before you start bubble wrapping your breakables.

1. Income taxes are just the starting point

Clients often ask David Berman, a CFP near Baltimore, about moving somewhere cheaper in retirement.

“It usually starts off very benignly: ‘Oh, you know, Florida doesn’t have an income tax and Maryland’s is eight and a half,’” Berman says. But when they do the math, taking into account things like property taxes, cost of living and even estate taxes, the difference often isn’t as large as clients expect.

Berman recommends talking to a professional before making a state jump, especially if you’re making other transactions before or after, such as the sale of a business. “Some states are more aggressive than others about chasing after their residents who are establishing residency elsewhere,” he says.

This also applies to people buying a second home and trying to declare residency there. If you live in a state like New York or New Jersey and try to establish residency at a second home in Florida, expect an audit, Berman says. “They are definitely looking for people who are fudging it,” he says.

2. You could get a Medicare do-over

If you have Medicare Advantage and you move out of your plan’s service area, you get a chance to reset your Medicare coverage. You can choose another Medicare Advantage plan or return to Original Medicare and — here’s the kicker — get another shot to sign up for Medigap. You typically have to sign up during Medigap open enrollment, which only lasts six months after you’re 65 and have Medicare Part B. (And Medigap can be tougher to buy later if you have health issues.)

“We call this the nuclear option because this is one of the few ways to get out of a Medicare Advantage plan later in life if a Medicare Advantage plan is no longer working for you,” says Melinda Caughill, co-founder and CEO of 65 Incorporated, which offers Medicare guidance. “You will have a guaranteed issue right to get a Medigap policy.” This means companies must offer you a plan at the same pricing as everyone else, regardless of health issues.

If you have Original Medicare with a Medigap plan, in most cases, that Medigap policy will follow you and take on the policy pricing of your new area. If you have a Medicare Part D prescription drug plan, you will need to choose a new plan if you’ve left the service area. And don’t forget to notify all the companies involved in your health care and/or dental coverage, as well as the Social Security Administration, about your move.

3. Renting first might be smarter

Unless you are super familiar with a location — in all seasons — be cautious about buying a home right away. “We try like crazy to talk our clients into renting for a year,” Berman says.

If you buy a house and have to sell it a year and a half later because you made the wrong choice on a city or neighborhood, the transaction costs will be substantial, Berman says. You’ll also owe capital gains taxes on any profit on the home sale if you’ve lived there for less than two years.

Thomas Cook, a CFP in Knoxville, Tennessee, has retired clients who recently moved to the state but are thinking of leaving. “They ultimately decided that Tennessee was not the right fit for them,” he says. But since they bought their home and prices have climbed since their purchase, they face paying capital gains taxes if they sell too soon.

4. The health care system needs a look

Access to health care should be a variable on your list. Crystal McKeon, a CFP in Houston, has a retired client who moved abroad and was diagnosed with cancer six months later. The country in question is equipped to handle it, but “it could’ve been very bad,” she says.

It’s important to think about not just your primary care doctor but also the general medical facilities available to you. “Otherwise, you could end up traveling pretty far to get good health care,” McKeon says.

5. Culture is important

Retirement happiness is also about the intangibles. Retirees who consider themselves happy spend significant time on interactive and social activities, according to a March report from life insurance company MassMutual. What’s the culture like? Will you be around people you enjoy?

Berman recalls a client who moved from Maryland to Arizona about five years ago — and is moving back due to the weather and the social climate. “One of the things to consider is the political dynamic, because it’s so contentious in today’s world,” he says. “What makes life enjoyable? The people around you, and the environment, and feeling good and safe. It’s definitely an issue.”

Cook recommends that people use social media to help with this. “It could be helpful to join a Facebook group ahead of time to get a feel for the culture,” he says.

Kate Ashford, CSA® writes for NerdWallet. Email: kashford@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kateashford.

Survey: Half of American cardholders now carry credit card debt, many with no plan to pay it off

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Katie Kelton | (TNS) Bankrate.com

Credit cards can be powerful tools to purchase things you need and build a strong credit history, but they can also be risky. The cost of carrying credit card debt is high. Even so, more Americans — 50%, according to new Bankrate survey data — are carrying a balance today than they have been since March 2020.

With interest rates at an all-time high, you might wonder why cardholders are carrying that balance. But it’s not a simple answer. Economic factors like inflation and interest rates are making it hard for some Americans to make ends meet, survey data shows. In some cases, people might be doom spending or going into debt for fun.

Bankrate’s key insights on credit card debt in 2024

—One-half of American credit cardholders carry a credit card balance from month to month. That’s 50% of cardholders, compared to 44% in January 2024 and 60% in March 2020.

—The likelihood of having credit card debt increases with age until the boomer generation. Forty-two percent of Gen Z cardholders (ages 18-27), 53% of millennials (ages 28-43), 60% of Gen Xers (ages 44-59) and 48% of boomers (ages 60-78) carry a balance month to month.

—Inflation and high interest rates are factors for many Americans. Thirty-four percent of debtors say inflation and 32% say high interest rates have made their credit card debt burdens worse since the beginning of 2022.

The number of Americans with credit card debt is at a four-year high

New Bankrate data tells a story about Americans’ debt: More people are carrying debt on their credit cards than they have since the early pandemic days. But that situation may or may not be by choice.

Fifty percent of credit cardholders carry debt from month to month. That’s up from 44% in January and is the highest figure Bankrate has observed since March 2020, when 60% of cardholders carried debt from month to month.

“Credit card balances fell sharply in 2020 as many Americans spent less during the pandemic and used stimulus funds to pay down debt,” explains Rossman.

He continues: “Since the beginning of 2021, however, credit card balances have been off to the races. According to Federal Reserve data, Americans owe 45% more now on their credit cards than they did in early 2021. And the credit card delinquency rate is at its highest point since 2011.”

No generation is free from the debt burden, but the likelihood of carrying a credit card balance does rise with age before dropping with the boomer generation. Forty-two percent of Gen Zers, 53% of millennials, 60% of Gen Xers and 48% of boomers with credit cards carry a balance from month to month.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the likelihood of carrying a balance falls as income increases. Fifty-eight percent of cardholders with annual household incomes under $50,000 carry a balance month to month, compared to 54% with annual household incomes between $50,000 and $79,999, 46% with annual household incomes between $80,000 and $99,999 and 43% with annual household incomes of $100,000+.

Credit card debt is persistent, with 3 in 5 Americans carrying it for more than a year

The length of time cardholders are carrying debt may be a sign balances have become more difficult to pay off. Three in 5 of those with credit card debt (60%) have been in credit card debt for at least a year, up from 50% in 2021.

The likelihood of carrying debt for at least a year gets higher as you get older but stays relatively consistent with income. Here’s how many credit card debtors have carried debt for a year or more by generation:

—51% of Gen Zers

—58% of millennials

—61% of Gen Xers

—65% of boomers

And here’s how many debtors have carried debt for a year or more by income:

—62% with annual household incomes under $50,000

—56% with annual household incomes between $50,000 and $79,999

—61% with annual household incomes between $80,000 and $99,999

—62% with annual household incomes of $100,000+

Debtors blame inflation and interest rates for making their debt burden worse

The survey data shows that Americans feel the economy isn’t helping their debt situation.

About a third (34%) of credit card debtors say inflation has made their credit card debt burdens worse since the beginning of 2022, which is when the Fed started raising interest rates to counteract increasing inflation.

A similar share (32%) say high interest rates have made their credit card debt burdens worse since the beginning of 2022. These themes intertwine.

If you think of your income as divided into slices, the slice for everyday expenses might have grown in light of recent inflation. For example, groceries are 25.1% more expensive than they were before the pandemic, gas is 28.4% more expensive and rent is 23.9% more expensive. Because of that, the slice of your income dedicated to debt repayment may have shrunk.

At the same time, credit card interest rates are hovering at just more than 20%, so your credit card balance might be growing rapidly. It’s a double whammy, that could explain the uncertainty Americans feel about getting out of debt.

Roughly one in four Americans with credit card debt (24%) feel less confident in their ability to get out of credit card debt now than they did at the beginning of 2022. Furthermore, about one in six (17%) worry they might not be able to make their minimum credit card payments at some point in the next six months.

And just over two in five (42%) have a plan to pay off their credit card debt.

FAQs

—How do I get out of credit card debt?

Maybe you’re among the 50% of Americans carrying credit card debt. While it may feel overwhelming, “credit card debt won’t go away on its own,” says Rossman. “If you make minimum payments toward the average balance ($6,218, according to TransUnion) at the average credit card rate (20.71%), you’ll be in debt for 18 years and will owe more than $9,000 in interest.”To truly make progress on your debt, you’ll want to make more than the minimum payment. Start by looking at your budget — income and expenses — to see how much wiggle room there is for debt repayment. You may need to reduce expenses or start a side hustle to make the numbers work.Once you have money set aside for debt, you can consider using the avalanche repayment method (paying off high interest debt first) or the snowball method (paying off small debt balances first).Learn more about how to pay off credit card debt.

—How do balance transfer cards work?

For people who can qualify, a balance transfer card can help you save money on interest. These cards offer new cardholders a 0% intro APR for a set period of time on balances they transfer to the card. The balance transfer often requires a fee of between 3% and 5%, but cardholders could still come out ahead given what you stand to save on interest.“My favorite tip is to move your debt to a new card with a lengthy 0% balance transfer promotion; some of these last as long as 21 months,” says Rossman.Before doing a balance transfer, it’s a good idea to have a plan in place for paying off the balance you transfer — ideally before the intro period ends and the regular APR kicks in. After that, it becomes another interest-accruing card.

—How does credit card debt affect my credit score?

Credit card debt doesn’t directly impact your credit score, but it can have indirect effects.Your credit score is made up of several factors, like your payment history, credit utilization, length of credit history, new credit and credit mix. If you’re not always making minimum payments on your card balance, that can hurt your payment history. And if you’re using a lot of your available credit (more than 30%) by carrying a balance, that hurts your credit utilization ratio. Both of these can ding your credit score.“If you have a lot of debt or a lower credit score, nonprofit credit counseling is probably your best bet,” Rossman suggests.If you’re ready to begin rebuilding credit, consider a credit card for bad credit. These cards can help you boost your credit score and access better interest rates and terms in the future. But first, you’ll want to get any outstanding debt under control.

Methodology

Bankrate commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct the survey. All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The total sample size was 2,437 U.S. adults, of whom 1,877 were credit card holders and 930 carry a balance on their credit card(s). Fieldwork was undertaken between June 24-26, 2024. The survey was carried out online and meets rigorous quality standards. It employed a non-probability-based sample using both quotas upfront during collection and then a weighting scheme on the back end designed and proven to provide nationally representative results.

March 2020 Long Term Debt Survey: All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 2,526 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between March 4-6, 2020. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults (aged 18+).

(Visit Bankrate online at bankrate.com.)

©2024 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.