Survey: Americans amass over $1,000 in holiday debt

On Behalf of | Jan 5, 2018 | Credit Card Debt |

According to a recent survey, Americans on average picked up $1,054 in debts related to their holiday spending this season. Of this debt, over two-thirds of the people survey said they used a credit card to finance it.

Additionally, more than 15 percent of those surveyed said that while they did not use a credit card, they did use an in-store card, which operates in basically the same way as a credit card would.

While the $1,054 figure may not seem that bad to many Bradley County, Tennessee, residents, it is important to remember that it is only an average. Almost 20 percent of those surveyed actually racked up more than $2,000 in debt.

The scariest things about this survey are that almost 65 percent of those who wound up in debt because of the holidays were not expecting to do so when the season started. Moreover, fewer than half of those surveyed said the would have their debts paid off in fewer than three months, with one in 10 people saying that, at least for the time being, they would make minimum payments on their credit card debt.

Hopefully, no Tennessee resident spent so much on making the holidays cheerful for others that they now have serious financial problems because of it. However, even if holiday spending alone does not affect a family, residual debt from the holidays combined with a sudden job loss or other emergency can make it hard for a Tennessee family to recover.

Fortunately, bankruptcy and other options are available to Tennessee families who find themselves in this type of predicament.

Source: K5 News, “Here’s how much debt Americans racked up over the holidays in 2017,” Dec. 29, 2017

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