澳大利亞信用卡債務創歷史新高

Australians are addicted to credit cards and have racked up the biggest ever debt on plastic at more than $52 billion. And the alarming new statistics released by the Reserve Bank of Australia found our record credit card blowout is far from slowing down.

據報道，澳大利亞人似乎對使用信用卡上癮。據統計，該國人民信用卡債務已超過520億澳元，打破了記錄。此外，據澳大利亞儲備銀行發佈的最新數據顯示，信用卡債務完全沒有要減少的跡象。

The latest jump was fuelled by shoppers overspending at Christmas after they accumulated a record high on plastic for the month of December by plonking $28 billion onto credit.

最近的債務飆升是因爲消費者在聖誕節期間過度消費而造成的，僅在12月這一個月內，澳洲人的信用卡債務就達到了280億澳元。

Yellow Brick Road spokeswoman Lyndsey Douglas said the soaring national credit card debt was directly "linked to growing household spending pressures." "Credit cards are a convenient tool but they shouldn't be used as long-term debt or for living expenses." she said.

Yellow Brick Road的女發言人Lyndsey Douglas表示，全國信用卡債務飆升與不斷增大的家庭支出壓力有直接的關係。她說：“信用卡是一種很方便的工具，但是不應該用作長期債務或者用於生活支出。”

Some cards attract interest rates higher than 20 per cent for customers so for those who fail to pay off their card in full they will pay a hefty price. Financial comparison website spokeswoman Sally Tindall said while the overall debt on cards was a concern she warned people to avoid getting trapped in a "debt cycle."

據悉，有些信用卡向客戶收取高於20%的利息，所以那些不能全額還款的人們將爲此付出昂貴的代價。金融對比網站的女發言人Sally Tindall表示。在對信用卡總債務堪憂的同時，她也警告人們要避免陷入“債務循環”。

"We are relying on credit cards more and more and that's OK if you are paying it off in full. However the amount on cards accruing interest is down from a high of about $37 billion to about $32.1 billion."

“我們越來越依賴信用卡，如果你可以還清卡債的話，這當然沒有問題。但是銀行卡產生利息的金額已經從大約370億降到了321億。”

On a $5000 card debt with an average interest rate of about 18 per cent, by making the minimum monthly repayments it would cost a customer more than $17,100 in interest and take them 33 years to pay off.

如果一個用戶有五千澳元的卡債，平均利率爲18%，每月按最低金額還款，總利息將超過17100澳元，要花33年時間才能還清。