What may come as a surprise is that the amount owed on revolving charge accounts has been decreasing during the recession.
People are beginning to reduce credit card debt.
The amount of money that people owe on their credit cards is still very significant.
At the beginning of 2009, the average balance exceeded $8,000.
Many people pay off their bills each month.
Therefore, those people who do not pay their balance in full each month, likely owe considerably more than $8,000.
In 2008 and 2009, amid the recession, the amount of outstanding credit card debt actually decreased.
You might think that the amount of money that people owe would have been increasing during that time period, however the opposite has been true.
In 2009, the average outstanding balances on these types of accounts actually decreased by nearly five percent.
There are three main contributing factors that likely contributed to this decline.

1. Decreased Disposable Income -- An interesting byproduct of the recession is that people have less disposable cash to spend.
   With double-digit unemployment, there are many households that have far less cash on hand.
   These people need to focus their money on their day-to-day living expenses, such as rent, utilities, and groceries.
   Since there is less cash available, to spend, people are not being as frivolous with the cash as they might have been during better financial times.
   As such, the amount of debt has been slightly decreasing of late.
   
2. Decreased Credit Limits - Since the start of the recession, the lending companies have become less willing to offer high limits to people.
   The vast majority of people have seen their borrowing limits decreased significantly in 2008 and 2009.
   Even people who are in very good standing with the financial agencies could not avoid this adjustment.
   The lending companies, perhaps overreacted, and decreased borrowing limits on nearly all accounts.
   Since borrowing limits were lowered, the amount of money that people might spent would likely be lowered as well.
   
3. Increased Interest Rates - Along with decreased borrowing levels, lenders increased the rate of interest that they charge people who maintain balances in their cards.
   A lot of people took this to heart, and starting decreasing the amount of money that they owed by consciously paying more than the minimum amount that was due.
   

Every person should do what he or she can to reduce credit card debt.
The less money that people owe, the better off they will be.