Credit card statements considered 'virtually incomprehensible'

06.20.09
By Timothy Jones

Is it easy for you to read your credit card statement each month and determine what you owe and by when?

According to a new study by the Communication Research Institute, credit card statements mailed to consumers around the globe fail to give them an accurate sense of what they owe. Even more, the statements largely fail to clue consumers into rates that will be charged if they let credit card debt accumulate.

The institute suggests that on a global scale, consumers have racked up more than $40 trillion in credit card debt.

"Consumers have been lulled into a false sense of security, that they are operating their credit card to the best of their ability based on the information they are being given on their statement," says professor David Sless, director of the Communication Research Institute.

Sless suggests that poor statement design is crippling consumers trying to dig themselves out of debt, and without regulatory pressure on the card issuing companies, the situation is not likely to improve.

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Consumers baffled by card statements