BernardaSv/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — You’re probably going to die with some debt to your name. Most people do. In fact, 73 percent of consumers had outstanding debt when they were reported as dead, according to December 2016 data provided to Credit.com by credit bureau Experian. Those consumers carried an average total balance of $61,554, including mortgage debt. Without home loans, the average balance was $12,875.
The data is based on Experian’s FileOne database, which includes 220 million consumers. (There are about 242 million adults in the U.S., according to 2015 estimates from the Census Bureau.) To determine the average debt people have when they die, Experian looked at consumers who died from October to December of 2016,
It found that 73 percent of consumers had debt when they died. Sixty-eight percent of those with debt had credit card balances. The next most common debt category was for mortgages (37 percent), followed by auto loans (25 percent), personal loans (12 percent) and student loans (6 percent).
These were the average unpaid balances: credit cards, $4,531; auto loans, $17,111; personal loans, $14,793; and student loans, $25,391.
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