Insurance in 2026: Best Auto, Home, Life, and Pet Insurance Picks—Plus a Wake-Up Call on Credit Card Debt
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What are the latest trends in credit card debt?
Insurance. Everybody needs it. Well, most everybody. But a lot of folks don't love paying for something they may never have to use. That said, we're going to go over all kinds of insurance today and give you our nerdy picks for the best insurance products out there.
Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. Later this episode, we'll continue our series on your money in 2026 with a look at insurance. And I hope you guys are enjoying it, by the way. Please let us know if you are. But first, our weekly money news roundup, where we break down the latest in the world of finance to help you be smarter with your money. Our news colleague, Anna Hachoski, is back.
Welcome back, Anna. Hi, Happy New Year, Elizabeth Shawn.
How can I effectively manage and pay off credit card debt?
So today I'm going to talk about NerdWallet's 2025 Household Debt Survey, which is conducted by the Harris Poll. It found that revolving credit card debt, and those are the balances that you carry from month to month on your credit card if you haven't paid it off, has increased by more than 4% over the last year. And the average amount for those households with revolving credit card debt was $11,413 as of September.
I mean, that can be a really difficult amount of debt to get out of, especially considering how high interest rates tend to be on credit cards.
Yeah, absolutely, Sean. So I asked data studies writer Erin Elisa back to talk about that figure and some of the other findings from the report. So Erin, welcome back to Smart Money. Thanks for having me back. Let's start with that top number. What's driving the increase in credit card debt?
So revolving credit card debt has been going up since 2021 after a lot of people paid down their balances in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed Americans with revolving credit card debt about the things that contributed to it. And while more than half said necessities like food and transportation, 37% said shopping. So it's likely that credit card debt at large is a combination of necessary and unnecessary spending.
Yeah, that's pretty much what I would expect.
What factors are driving the increase in insurance rates?
So nearly half of Americans consider carrying revolving credit card debt normal. Is this a shift in attitudes, necessity, or both?
Well, for some, it might just be a way to cope. Nearly a third of Americans with revolving credit card debt say they'll probably always have balances. And close to a quarter of those with debt say it makes them feel hopeless, so normalizing it may just dull the sting. Other than that, I mean, it is pretty normal. Personally, I stopped carrying balances years ago, but plenty of people see credit card debt as a given, possibly the only way to reasonably afford their lifestyle.
And how concerning is the normalization itself? Does viewing debt as a routine budget line item change how long people stay in debt or how aggressively they try to pay it down?
I mean, I think it's concerning. Yeah. Credit card debt is usually very expensive to carry, and it can absolutely eat up your budget in monthly payments. Yeah. People's views on debt are not only influenced by the people around them, but the people in their online spaces, for good or for ill. And if everyone else seems to have credit card debt, you might not feel as much urgency to get rid of your own.
How can I shop smarter for auto insurance in 2026?
Right. It's like, though, we're all in this together. What about some other types of debt? What's happening there?
Student loan, auto loan, and mortgage debt are all up this year as well. None of the debt balances jumped quite as much as revolving credit card debt, though.
So something that you point out in the study, it doesn't feel like typical income is keeping up with living costs, but that's not actually the case, right?
You're right. It doesn't feel that way for many. But the numbers suggest that median household income has slightly outpaced the cost of living over the past five years. However, housing and transportation, which are two big necessary costs for most Americans, have increased more than median household income growth during that time.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What are the latest trends in credit card debt?
0:00–0:52
2
How can I effectively manage and pay off credit card debt?
0:52–2:06
3
What factors are driving the increase in insurance rates?
2:06–3:14
4
How can I shop smarter for auto insurance in 2026?
3:14–4:14
5
What should I know about homeowners insurance costs?
4:14–5:35
6
Is renters insurance worth it for my situation?
5:35–7:06
7
What are the benefits of pet insurance?
7:06–7:56
8
How much life insurance do I really need?
7:56–31:50
Speakers
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