AnswerQA
Research

The state of US personal finance — April 2026 snapshot

Summary

US households are saving 4.0% of disposable income, owe $18.8 trillion total, and pay an average 21.0% on credit card balances. The FDIC-reported national savings rate is 0.38%, while the rate cap (the ceiling for an account to count as "competitive") sits at 4.39%. Mortgages just hit their lowest spring level since 2024 at 6.23%.

By Kalle Lamminpää Published April 28, 2026

Methodology

Each figure is pulled directly from the most recent release of the relevant US government or government-sponsored data source — Bureau of Economic Analysis, the New York Fed, the Federal Reserve Board, the FDIC, and Freddie Mac. Numbers are reproduced as published; no smoothing, projection, or re-weighting is applied. The snapshot is dated to the most recent observation in each series, not to the publication date of this article. We plan to refresh this page quarterly.

The numbers

Personal saving rate

4.0%

February 2026

Personal saving as a share of disposable personal income, seasonally adjusted annual rate. Down from 4.5% in January.

Source: BEA via FRED (PSAVERT)

Total household debt

$18.8 trillion

Q4 2025

Up $191B (1.0%) from Q3 2025. Mortgages account for $13.17T (70%); credit cards $1.28T; auto loans $1.67T; student loans $1.66T; HELOC $434B.

Source: NY Fed Household Debt and Credit Report

Average credit card APR

21.00%

February 2026

Average finance charge across all commercial bank credit card accounts. Preliminary figure.

Source: Federal Reserve G.19 Consumer Credit Release

FDIC national savings rate

0.38%

April 20, 2026

Deposit-weighted average across all FDIC-insured institutions. The FDIC rate cap (the higher of national rate + 75 bps or 120% of the comparable Treasury yield + 75 bps) is 4.39%.

Source: FDIC National Rates and Rate Caps

30-year fixed mortgage rate

6.23%

Week ending April 23, 2026

Lowest level observed across the last three spring homebuying seasons. 15-year fixed: 5.58%.

Source: Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS)

What the numbers mean

The gap between what banks have to pay (0.38%) and what they can pay before the FDIC flags them as outliers (4.39%) is more than a 10x spread. That spread is the entire reason high-yield savings accounts exist — and why moving an emergency fund from a default checking account to a competitive HYSA is one of the highest-leverage personal finance moves available right now.

On the debt side, the headline number — $18.8 trillion — is large but most of it (70%) is mortgage debt backed by appreciating real estate. The line to watch is credit card debt at $1.28 trillion paying 21.0% APR. Even at the current saving rate of 4.0%, a household carrying average revolving balances is losing ground in real terms each month.

Notes and limitations

  • Different series have different observation dates. NY Fed household debt is a quarterly series and lags by ~6 weeks; mortgage rates are weekly; FRED saving rate is monthly.
  • The 21.0% credit card APR is an average across all accounts, including those that pay no interest because they pay in full each month. The APR for accounts that actually carry a balance is meaningfully higher.
  • The FDIC national rate is deposit-weighted, so it is heavily pulled down by large default-rate accounts at major banks. Most readers should compare to the rate cap (4.39%), not the national average.

Citations

Spotted a discrepancy or a number that has updated since publication? Email [email protected] and we will correct the page and note the change.