Credit card balances shot up by $48 BILLION in the third quarter of the year as overall debts swell to $17 TRILLION

America's combined household debt shot up by $228 billion to $17.3 trillion in the third quarter of the year, new figures showed today.

Experts said the increase was driven by rampant credit card borrowing which rose by $48 billion to $1.08 trillion. It means year-on-year American credit card balances have risen by $154 billion - the largest increase since the Fed started tracking data in 1999.

And the rate of Americans falling into delinquencies on loans was also at its highest level since 2011.