About half of households have no credit cards or pay off balances every month, the Federal Reserve has reported.

Some groups have used Fed numbers and U.S. Census Bureau household data to calculate an average $9,000 or so in credit-card debt per household.

MSN Money's Liz Pulliam Weston, however, says only about 8 percent owe that much, and cites a $2,200 median balance per household.

Dan Jones & Associates, in conducting the poll, said Utah's average credit-card debt was $4,800, quoting plasticeconomy.com numbers gleaned from people who use TrackCards to track their credit-card spending.

Experian credit reporting agency has a state-by-state average credit-card debt report, updated in March and based on a nationwide sampling of 2 million consumer credit files. It doesn't reveal a national average. But it shows the biggest credit-card debt in Alaska, with an average $8,200 owed, and Mississippi at the bottom, averaging $5,400. Utah was about $6,300, or 17th lowest in the nation, according to Experian's files.

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E-mail: jtcook@desnews.com