Canadians' consumer debt increased in the final quarter of last year, but there was a surprising drop in the amount borrowed on credit cards, a credit analysis firm says.
    
TransUnion said average total debt per Canadian consumer, excluding mortgages, was $25,709 in the fourth quarter of 2010 -- up 5.6 per cent from $24,346 in the comparable period of 2009.

Only a small portion of the total in either year was drawn on credit cards, which usually charge among the highest rates of interest.

The surprise, according to TransUnion, was that the average credit card debt in the fourth quarter of 2010 dropped by 2.7 per cent from a year earlier to $3,688.

Lines of credit were the biggest form of consumer debt tracked, and increased to nearly $34,000 -- up 8.8 per cent over the year.

Auto loans were the second-biggest form of non-mortgage debt tracked by the report, and TransUnion found the Canadian average rose to nearly $16,200 per borrower in the fourth quarter, up 11 per cent from a year earlier.

How much debt are you carrying on credit cards? Do you move debt from credit cards to lines of credit to avoid the high interest rates? Let us know in the comments.

With files from the Canadian Press
(This survey is not scientific. It is based on readers' responses.)

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