Student loan debt has surpassed credit card debt as the second largest type of debt in American households. From 1999 to 2016, credit card debt grew a meager 23.6 percent compared to student loan debt, which jumped by 828 percent. It’s the only category that hasn’t seen a decline since 1999, reflecting an increasing amount of borrowing for tuition as well as an increasing amount of overall borrowers. Even after adjusting for inflation, the growth of student loan debt is astronomical.