These Are the 10 Highest Average Monthly Bills in the U.S. – Are You Paying More Than You Should Be?
Written by
Vance Cariaga
Edited by
Daria Uhlig
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If you think your home is overflowing with monthly bills, you’re probably right. A new report from bill-pay service doxo found that the average U.S. household spends $25,513 a year, or 34% of their income, on the 10 most essential household bills.
The 2024 U.S. Household Bill Pay Report, released on March 7, analyzed a proprietary dataset to determine the 10 most common bills and how much they cost. The total U.S. Bill Pay Economy comes to $4.46 trillion a year, according to doxo. Of that, $3.35 trillion — or 75% — is spent on the 10 most essential household bills.
Here’s how the $3.35 trillion breaks down in aggregate across all U.S. households:
- Mortgages: $885 billion
- Rent: $656 billion
- Auto loans: $571 billion
- Utilities: $451 billion
- Auto insurance: $271 billion
- Mobile phone: $180 billion
- Cable & internet: $156 billion
- Health insurance (consumer-direct portion): $133 billion
- Life insurance: $34 billion
- Alarm & security: $17 billion
Broken down by single U.S. households, these are the average monthly payments for the 10 most common bills:
- Mortgages: $1,402
- Rent: $1,300
- Auto loans: $496
- Utilities: $362
- Auto insurance: $209
- Cable & internet: $122
- Mobile phone: $121
- Health insurance: $114
- Life insurance: $87
- Alarm & security: $85
For many Americans, tax season provides an opportune time to catch up on monthly bills. A separate survey of 1,165 U.S. adults conducted by Assurance IQ in late January found that 30% of respondents plan to use their tax refunds this year to catch up on monthly bills. Another 29% are considering using their refunds to pay for insurance premiums.
Meanwhile, a recent poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about two-thirds of Americans say their household expenses have risen over the past year, but only about a quarter say their income has increased in the same period. Among the bills that have seen the highest increases are utilities such as electricity and water service, whose costs have risen due to rate hikes across the country.
“With the cost of raw materials, transportation and other expenses on the rise due to inflation, utility companies have passed some of their increased costs on to customers,” said Jake Hill, a finance expert and the CEO of DebtHammer.
For new home buyers, mortgages are also much more expensive these days due to high home prices and mortgage rates. And while rent prices are falling in much of the United States, they remain high in a number of markets, including Midwestern cities like Chicago, Cleveland, Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
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