--- title: You're Going to Spend $280,000 on Interest in Your Lifetime description: The typical American consumer will fork over an average of $279,002 in interest payments during the course of his or her lifetime. So says a new report from Credit.com, which analyzed the lifetime cost of debt in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on average mortgage balances, credit card debt, and credit scores. authors: - name: Jackie Zimmermann url: https://money.com/author/jackie-zimmermann/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 22 covers: - Personal Finance - Career Advice - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/jackie_zm former_staff: true published: '2015-01-15T16:54:06.000Z' modified: '2015-01-15T16:54:06.000Z' section: Personal Finance tags: - auto loans - cost of debt - Credit Cards - Debt - fees - interest payments - interest rate - mortgage rates - States word_count: 258 canonical: https://money.com/lifetime-interest-payments/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![You're Going to Spend $280,000 on Interest in Your Lifetime](https://money.com/content.money.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/140618_money_gen_9.jpg?crop=0px%2C110px%2C1537px%2C864px&resize=1012%2C569&quality=85&strip&ssl=1) The typical American consumer will fork over an average of $279,002 in interest payments during the course of his or her lifetime. So says a new report from [Credit.com](http://www.credit.com/tools/lifetime-cost-of-debt/insights/), which analyzed the lifetime cost of debt in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on average mortgage balances, credit card debt, and credit scores. The size of the nut varies dramatically from state to state. Residents of Washington, D.C.—where average new mortgages are $462,000 and the average credit score of 656 falls squarely in the "fair" range—can expect to pay $451,890 in interest, the highest in the nation. Concerned D.C. residents might want to consider hitching a ride to Iowa, where the average new mortgage is the nation's lowest, at $120,467. Add in an average credit card debt of $2,935—also the lowest in the country—and a credit score of 689, and residents of the Hawkeye State have a lifetime cost of debt of "only" $129,394. Along with 30-year fixed-rate mortgages, Credit.com also considered an average auto loan balance of $22,750 (assuming nine cars over a lifetime) and 40 years of revolving credit card debt when calculating its findings. Here's a breakdown of the top 10 states with the highest cost of debt: 1. Washington, D.C. ($451,890) 2. California ($368,745) 3. Hawaii ($312,747) 4. New Jersey ($309,500) 5. New York ($300,031) 6. Maryland ($294,720) 7. Virginia ($280,516) 8. Washington ($267,964) 9. Massachusetts ($261,220) 10. Colorado ($255,232) And the lowest: 1. Iowa ($129,394) 2. Nebraska ($137,174) 3. Wisconsin ($144,127) 4. Maine ($154,340) 5. North Dakota ($157,011) 6. South Dakota ($157,136) 7. Montana ($160,849) 8. Pennsylvania ($163,513) 9. West Virginia ($166,232) 10. Vermont ($167,042) *See the full [state-by-state](http://www.credit.com/tools/lifetime-cost-of-debt/insights/) list.* ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/lifetime-interest-payments/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Personal Finance", "item": "https://money.com/personal-finance/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Credit Card Debt", "item": "https://money.com/credit-card-debt/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "You're Going to Spend $280,000 on Interest in Your Lifetime" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/lifetime-interest-payments/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/lifetime-interest-payments/", "name": "You're Going to Spend $280,000 on Interest in Your Lifetime", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-01-15T16:54:06.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/lifetime-interest-payments/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/lifetime-interest-payments/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2015-01-15T16:54:06.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "You're Going to Spend $280,000 on Interest in Your Lifetime", "articleSection": "Personal Finance", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/06/140618_money_gen_9.jpg?quality=85", "width": 1537, "height": 1025 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Jackie Zimmermann", "url": "https://money.com/author/jackie-zimmermann/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/jackie-zimmermann/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/jackie_zm" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-01-15T16:54:06.000Z", "description": "The typical American consumer will fork over an average of $279,002 in interest payments during the course of his or her lifetime. So says a new report from Credit.com, which analyzed the lifetime cost of debt in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on average mortgage balances, credit card debt, and credit scores.", "abstract": "The typical American consumer will fork over an average of $279,002 in interest payments during the course of his or her lifetime. So says a new report from Credit.com, which analyzed the lifetime cost of debt in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, based on average mortgage balances, credit card debt, and credit scores.", "@id": "https://money.com/lifetime-interest-payments/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2015-01-15T16:54:06.000Z", "wordCount": 258, "keywords": [ "auto loans", "cost of debt", "Credit Cards", "Debt", "fees", "interest payments", "interest rate", "mortgage rates", "States" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Personal finance", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_finance" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Credit card debt", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_debt" ] } ] } ] } ```