Americans continue to pile up credit card debt, edging close to $1 trillion

Americans continue to bury themselves in credit card debt this year, with the latest total balance inching close to $1 trillion.

U.S. consumers now owe $986 billion on their charge cards, according to Federal Reserve Bank of New York data released Monday. That's a 17% jump from a year ago and a record high, analysts at Bankrate said. The debt keeps piling up partly because stubbornly high inflation is forcing households to lean on their credit cards to cover monthly expenses, financial experts said. 

"High inflation is certainly contributing to Americans' high credit card balances, along with record high interest rates," Ted Rossman, senior industry analyst at Bankrate said. "More than a third of U.S. adults have more credit card debt than emergency savings, the highest since we started tracking this in 2011."