Australians are addicted to credit cards and have racked up the biggest ever debt on plastic at more than $52 billion. And the alarming new statistics released by the Reserve Bank of Australia found our record credit card blowout is far from slowing down.
据报道，澳大利亚人似乎对使用信用卡上瘾。据统计，该国人民信用卡债务已超过520亿澳元，打破了记录。此外，据澳大利亚储备银行发布的最新数据显示，信用卡债务完全没有要减少的迹象。
The latest jump was fuelled by shoppers overspending at Christmas after they accumulated a record high on plastic for the month of December by plonking $28 billion onto credit.
最近的债务飙升是因为消费者在圣诞节期间过度消费而造成的，仅在12月这一个月内，澳洲人的信用卡债务就达到了280亿澳元。

Yellow Brick Road spokeswoman Lyndsey Douglas said the soaring national credit card debt was directly "linked to growing household spending pressures." "Credit cards are a convenient tool but they shouldn't be used as long-term debt or for living expenses." she said.
Yellow Brick Road的女发言人Lyndsey Douglas表示，全国信用卡债务飙升与不断增大的家庭支出压力有直接的关系。她说：“信用卡是一种很方便的工具，但是不应该用作长期债务或者用于生活支出。”
Some cards attract interest rates higher than 20 per cent for customers so for those who fail to pay off their card in full they will pay a hefty price. Financial comparison website spokeswoman Sally Tindall said while the overall debt on cards was a concern she warned people to avoid getting trapped in a "debt cycle."
据悉，有些信用卡向客户收取高于20%的利息，所以那些不能全额还款的人们将为此付出昂贵的代价。金融对比网站的女发言人Sally Tindall表示。在对信用卡总债务堪忧的同时，她也警告人们要避免陷入“债务循环”。
"We are relying on credit cards more and more and that's OK if you are paying it off in full. However the amount on cards accruing interest is down from a high of about $37 billion to about $32.1 billion."
“我们越来越依赖信用卡，如果你可以还清卡债的话，这当然没有问题。但是银行卡产生利息的金额已经从大约370亿降到了321亿。”
On a $5000 card debt with an average interest rate of about 18 per cent, by making the minimum monthly repayments it would cost a customer more than $17,100 in interest and take them 33 years to pay off.
如果一个用户有五千澳元的卡债，平均利率为18%，每月按最低金额还款，总利息将超过17100澳元，要花33年时间才能还清。