By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

Alaska leads the nation in highest credit card debt per borrower, according to a Boston-based national group that advocates for greater regulation of the lending industry.

Americans for Fairness in Lending said that Alaskans have a median credit card debt of $3,384 for each borrower - $1,200 more than any other state. The report, released July 30, was compiled by AFFIL's partner, the economic research and advocacy nonprofit Corporation for Enterprise Development, as part of its 2007-2008 Assets and Opportunities Score Card.

CFED's annual score card measures how easy or hard it is for families across the U.S. to achieve the American Dream by providing a state-level snapshot of how the country is performing in six key areas. These include financial security, business development, home ownership, health care, education and tax policy and accountability.

“Alaska prides itself in being the biggest in many categories, but this dubious distinction is nothing to be proud of,” said Steve Cleary, executive director of the Alaska Public Interest Research Group. “Credit card debt is bad for consumers. This high cost credit is taking hard-earned money from working Alaskans. AkPIRG has been working to both educate consumers on using credit wisely and to protect consumers from the predatory practices of the credit industry.”

Jim Campen, executive director of AFFIL, said the burden of credit card debt is felt in every state, with devastating impact on consumers and communities everywhere.

“Unfair practices by credit card companies are fueling these high debt levels,” he said. “Consumers are victims of a range of abuses such as doubling and tripling interest rates, applying higher interest rates retroactively to outstanding balances, imposing exorbitant penalty fees, and requiring binding mandatory arbitration clauses.”

The data on credit card debt are for year-end 2006 and were obtained by CFED from TransUnion, one of the nation's three major credit bureaus. The Federal Reserve Board has proposed new rules prohibiting some of the worst credit card abuses and asked for public comment.

AFFIL was created through a partnership of national consumer, civil rights, faith-based, non-partisan and grassroots organizations, including Center for Responsible Lending, Consumer Action, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, National Consumer Law Center, and U.S. Public Interest Research Group, among others.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com">margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.