Shopping with credit card may be an example of racking up "bad debt" if you can't pay the balance off each month.

Millennials — already laden with student loans — are adding a different kind of debt to their balance sheets: personal loans.

Those were the findings following an analysis of borrower data from 2015 through August 2018 by LendingPoint, a provider of personal loans. The lender studied 49,545 funded loans in all.

Personal loans typically have a set term of three to five years and generally charge a fixed interest rate. People tap them for a range of reasons, including emergencies and wedding finances.

You can access them at credit unions, consumer banks and online lenders.

These loans are unsecured, but if you default, your lender can assess late fees, and in extreme cases, try to garnish your wages and send debt collectors after you.

Back in 2015, roughly 12 percent of the individuals who took out a personal loan with LendingPoint were 35 and younger.

Since then, that proportion has roughly doubled: As of 2018, that age cohort now accounts for about a quarter of applicants.