Credit card signs posted outside a New York parking garage. (AP File Photo/Mark Lennihan)

) – “U.S. consumers will end the year with $54.79 billion more credit card debt than we started with,” predicts a new study by CardHub , a credit card comparison website.

American consumers reversed a six-year trend of paying down their credit card balances during the first quarter of 2014, charging an additional $28.1 billion during the second quarter, according to the study.

The additional credit card charges were 66 percent higher than those made during the second quarter of 2013.

According to the Federal Reserve, total revolving consumer debt now stands at $880 billion, or an average of $7,217 per U.S. household, which is down significantly from the $1,005.23 per household in 2008.

However, non-revolving debt, such as auto and student loans, account for another $2.3 trillion.

“The debt that we incurred during the second quarter of the year wipes out more than 86% of the $32.5 billion we paid off with the aid of tax refunds and annual salary bonuses from January through March,” the study noted. The consumer spending spree increased the average household’s credit card balance by $174.

“By the end of 2014 U.S. consumers will be roughly $1,300 away from the credit card tipping point, where minimum payments become unsustainable and delinquencies skyrocket,” the study warned, predicting that over-extended credit card holders will charge-off $30.3 billion in credit card debt this year.

There are three reasons for the sudden increase in credit card debt in the second quarter, CardHub CEO Odysseas Papadimitriou told CNSNews.com:

“One, the economy is improving and consumers are spending more;

“Two, consumers have a short memory and have forgotten how painful it was during the Great Recession; and

“Three, banks have started lending and are opening lines of credit for consumers,” he said.

When CNSNews.com asked him if the banks have also forgotten the lessons of the Great Recession, Papadimitriou laughed and replied: “It takes two to tango, and it seems like they are tangoing.”

Although consumer confidence is a a good thing for the U.S. economy, he added, excessive credit card debt is one of the things that led to the Great Recession. “It’s a trigger, which is why it’s so important that we don’t repeat those mistakes,” he told CNSNews.com.

Although he does not believe that debt-ridden Americans will hit the historic “tipping point” of $8,400 of credit card debt per household this year, Papadimitriou says they will “get close to it.”

And at year’s end, he predicts, “Americans will be much, much deeper in debt and moving faster and faster toward the tipping point.”