Start clearing credit card debts - interest rates are expected to rise in 2018

New York

NOW that the holiday spending party is over and credit card statements are landing in mailboxes, consumers would be wise to start whittling their balances, financial advisers and analysts say.

Consumers have been spending freely on plastic as the economy motors along. Revolving credit - mostly credit card debt - reached a record US$1.023 trillion in November, the Federal Reserve reported last week.

Serious card account delinquencies remain relatively low but have been ticking upward.

Bruce McClary, spokesman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a nonprofit that oversees a network of agencies…