What Debt Is Not Included in Consumer Debt?

Consumer debt generally is defined as the debt resulting from day-to-day living and household expenditures. It includes credit-card purchases, payday loans and car loans. Because other types of debt are not included, consumer debt doesn't capture the full scope of American indebtedness. Americans carry a great deal of consumer debt: From 2005 to 2010, for instance, consumer debt hovered between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve website.

Excluded

The biggest debt excluded from the "consumer debt" definition is mortgage debt. Similar obligations such as rent and homeowners insurance also are excluded. Alimony and child support are not considered consumer debts, the Duhaime legal website states, nor are back tax debts or loans taken out for investments. In an article on the Duhaime website, Justice R. Guy Cole Jr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals said consumer debt is debt consumers choose to incur, as opposed to taxes or alimony.

Debt Details

Consumer debt comes in two forms, the Money-Zine website states. Revolving debt is what you incur by using credit cards: You pay off your card, then you get fresh credit. Automobile loans, on the other hand, are non-revolving credit: Once you pay off the loan, the account closes. At the end of 2010, Money-Zine states, roughly one-third of American debt was revolving debt. Total consumer credit works out to roughly $7,800 in debt for every American man, woman and child.

Other Measures

The Federal Reserve uses several other measures besides consumer debt. Debt service ratio measures the ratio of your required debt payments -- both consumer debt and mortgage debt -- to your disposable income. The financial obligations ratio (FOR) includes other sorts of non-consumer debt: rent, automobile leases, property taxes and homeowners' insurance. The Federal Reserve also breaks down the financial obligations ratio into a mortgage FOR and a consumer FOR covering different parts of the debt picture.

Data

Social scientists, economists and the financial press can use the information derived from consumer debt and other measures to analyze America's financial situation. Money-Zine, for example, discovered that, in December 2010, American homeowners had an average financial obligations ratio of 15.27 percent, while renters had a FOR of 23.99 percent. That means renters pay roughly 8 percent more of their income than owners toward housing, transportation and general costs of living.