At the beginning of the New Year the Federal Reserve announced that in November of 2008 credit card debt totaled $973.5 billion--a decrease of 3.4 percent from October 2008. While that may sound like some good news for consumers, the numbers fail to reflect the debt that has already been written off the books and landed into the debt collection market.

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-americans-1-trillion-in-credit-card-debt