In the fourth quarter of 2022, US credit card debt approached a trillion dollars according to the New York Federal Reserve Bank in its quarterly household debt report which it released Thursday.

The credit card balances of Americans rose by $61 billion to $986 billion in the last three months of the year, according to the report. In the history of the metric, going back to 1999, it marked a record high.

Total household debt rose to over $16.9 trillion. The report blamed the increase on a mixture of stubbornly high inflation, continued strong consumer spending, and the repeated interest rate hikes of the Federal Reserve, which have pushed credit card interest rates to nearly 20%

In what the New York Fed researchers termed a “worrying” development, bank customers were found to be increasingly delaying loan payments.

The rise in credit card debt marks a major reversal of the trend two years ago, when consumers were paying off credit card debt using their government stimulus money, as well as money saved when expenses such as vacations, or dinners out plummeted during the Covid-19 lockdowns. During that period, credit card balances fell to $770 billion by early 2021, down from $890 billion one year earlier.

US credit card debt rose by $130 billion in 2022, marking the biggest yearly growth in the history of the measurement. Experts predict the US Federal Reserve will hike interest rates several more times this year, which will drive credit card rates and borrowing costs still higher.

In an interview with Bloomberg, Ted Rossman from the analytics firm Bankrate said, “It’s triple trouble for credit card borrowers. Balances are up, rates are up and more people are carrying credit card debt.” He added it was significant that the number of credit-card holders carrying debt rose to 46% last year, compared to 39% the year prior.

Previously the credit card debt record was set in 2019, when it hit $927 billion.