Since the pandemic, families have taken on debt at a comparatively fast rate. According to calculations by Wells Fargo economists, it took only four years for households to set a new record debt level after paying down borrowings in 2021, when interest rates were still near zero. Before that, the time from one debt peak to the next was three times longer. And that increased debt load often comes with a higher price. The typical charge on a credit card has climbed to a record above 22%, according to the Fed.

It helps that many families are relatively well-positioned to service that debt: Broad wage gains mean workers are pulling in larger paychecks, and higher home prices have bolstered many households’ net worth. While the share of income going to debt service is higher than it was three years ago — when stimulus checks were making it easier for people to throw money at their credit card bills — it is still low by historical standards.

And part of the reason some Americans were able to take on a substantial load of non-mortgage debt is because they’d locked in home loans at ultra-low rates, leaving room on their balance sheets for other types of borrowing. The effective rate of interest on U.S. mortgage debt was just 3.8% at the end of last year.

Yet the loans and interest payments can be a significant strain that shapes families’ spending choices.

“Many consumers are levered to the hilt — maxed out on debt and barely keeping their heads above water,’’ said Allan Schweitzer, a portfolio manager at credit-focused investment firm Beach Point Capital Management. “They can dog paddle, if you will, but any uptick in unemployment or worsening of the economy could drive a pretty significant spike in defaults.”

For Denise and Paul Nierzwicki, credit cards are the only way to make ends meet. The couple, ages 69 and 72, respectively, have about $20,000 in debt spread across multiple cards, all with interest rates above 20%.

The trouble started during the pandemic, when Denise lost her job and a business deal for a bar that they owned in their hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, went bad.

They applied for Social Security, which helped, and Denise now works 50 hours a week at a restaurant. Still, they’re barely scraping together the minimum payments for their credit card debt.

The couple blames Biden for what they see as a gloomy economy and plans to vote for the Republican candidate in November. Denise routinely voted for Democrats up until about 2010, when she grew dissatisfied with Barack Obama’s economic stances, she said. Now, she supports Donald Trump because he lowered taxes and because of his policies on immigration.

“We had more money when Trump was president,” she said, noting that three years ago her credit card debt was less than half of what it is now.

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