Student Loan Debt Rises In November, Federal Reserve Says

While Americans continued to cut their credit card use during the month of November, The Federal Reserve says student loan debt was a factor in the overall increases in consumer credit.

The total figure for outstanding consumer loans increased by 0.7 percent, bringing the overall total to around $2.4 trillion for November.

Nonrevolving credit - a loan type usually applied to large purchases such as a home mortgage down payment or college tuition - rose by 4.2 percent to $1.61 trillion for the month. Most of this money was in the form of student loans, which rose due to a recently passed law that makes the government the primary lender to students, The Wall Street Journal reports.

However, revolving credit - the kind generally reserved for purchases made with credit cards - decreased during this time, by 6.3 percent to $796 billion. The last time consumers took on more credit card debt than in a previous month was August 2008, the news source says.

The report marked the 27th consecutive month that consumer have reduced their overall borrowing.