I would expect that they are only able to see the current balance.

For me, I charge and pay every month so never pay interest. But my credit report always shows a 2-5k balance (or whatever I charged).

Theoretically, if I paid off the balance BEFORE my statement period ends it would show $0, but I never do this because I have 25 days of 0% interest to pay, so I do.

I don’t think credit reports track interest paid but that would be one way to track if it’s “real” credit card debt or people just cycling.

But also you could look at average. I average $3k over the past 10-30 years or whatever. If this increased to some new stable level it would mean an increase in income. But if it increased at some rate or increased sporadically then it means I’m taking on more debt.

So I expect if credit card debt increases in total it probably means more debt and not more people paying their balance in full each month.