Wah, Singaporeans’ credit card debt hit a 10-year high already! The total unpaid balance reached S$9.07 billion in the third quarter of 2025 – last time we saw this kind of number was back in 2014 leh.
The Singapore Department of Statistics (SingStat) data shows that rollover balances – that’s the amount people never pay by due date and carry forward to next month – have been climbing steadily from S$5.14 billion in mid-2021. That’s quite a jump sia!
Why everyone owing so much money?
According to CNA’s report, this trend might be caused by a few things. First, cost of living keep going up. Second, our culture nowadays is very materialistic – see something nice must buy. Third, all these “buy now, pay later” services make it too easy to spend money you don’t have yet.
Looking at the numbers, the unpaid balances were quite steady from 2014 to 2020. They peaked a bit in late 2019, then dropped to the decade’s lowest point in mid-2021. But after that, confirm chop stamp go up all the way until now. Even SingStat’s October data shows Singapore’s inflation went up 1.2 per cent year-on-year, so everything more expensive already.
Fewer cardholders but more debt – how like that?
Here’s the interesting part: even though fewer people holding credit cards now, the total debt still so high. This means on average, each cardholder owing more money than before.
SingStat figures show that in Q3 2025, there were nearly 6.1 million credit card holders – the lowest since end of 2023. The number of principal cardholders has been slowly climbing since 2014, but supplementary cardholders keep dropping. In Q3 2025, only 893,647 supplementary cardholders left, the lowest in more than 10 years already.
So basically, fewer people with cards but each person’s debt going up. Not a good sign for personal finances lah! Better be careful with your spending and don’t let the credit card bill snowball until cannot control.
Source: Mothership
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