Half Of Americans Stressed About Debt

[jeffrey]

A new Associated Press - Ipsos poll on consumer debt indicates that debts are worrying half the people in America with 20% of all adults in the poll saying they worry about their debts most of the time.

Over 15% of the respondents say they don't trust themselves to some extent with credit cards and to handle their credit card debt, with young adults under 25 expressing this concern the most.

Some 40% of the respondents say they will use credit cards this holiday season with 10% saying they will not pay off all their charges right away. Roughly 10% of those with credit cards said they have missed making their minimum payment during the past six months.

Most respondents with credit cards said they carefully manage the debts on their credit cards, but about 10% of have over $10,000 in credit card debt. Another 10% have credit card debts of over $5,000 and 10% don't know how much they owe. One in four say they use credit cards when they don't have the cash on hand.




The AP - Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults was taken between December 6 and December 8. It had a sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The sampling error is slightly larger for the 790 respondents with credit cards.