With all the focus on unemployment, the usual recession victims have been overlooked a bit. The over-65 crowd, living on fixed incomes, has seen portfolios decimated and those consistent dividends from blue chippers evaporate. At the same time, medical costs are headed in the other direction. Expenses up and income down, seniors have found only one solution: credit cards.

Low- and middle-income consumers who've reached or passed age 65 had $10,235 in credit card debt, on average, last year, up a disturbing 26% from 2005. Meanwhile, credit card debt climbed only 3% across all age groups - to $9,827. From the fourth quarter of last year to the first this year, total revolving debt fell a modest 2.3% to $939.6 billion.

Continue reading Old folks leaning on credit cards to get by

Old folks leaning on credit cards to get by originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.