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1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

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gdale6
Moderator Emeritus

1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

  • Over 1 in 3 people —or 86 million Americans — say they're afraid they'll max out their credit card when making a large purchase.
  • Still, most Americans continue to take on ever-increasing amounts of credit card debt.

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/22/1-in-3-consumers-fear-maxing-out-a-credit-card.html

Message 1 of 22
21 REPLIES 21
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

1/3 is a big number, its sad but true. I know people who run into this quite frequently.
Message 2 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

gdale6 good read ... for those of us who have walked the slippery slope before, this story is "scary" ...

Message 3 of 22
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

I think what is even more telling is that the average person polled considered anything more than $100 to be a large purchase... I don’t know about you all but for me, that figure is about $1500 and I’m very low income (I could realistically pay off $1500 in 2 months if I tightened my budget down but it’s way over what I would normally expect to spend in a month regardless) and I don’t think twice about spending $300-400 on a whim. 

 

Very alarming indeed. 

 

I think we are going to see a lot of tightening as the last of us who had to file chapter 7 in 2008-2010 have our BKs fall off out of fear of another round of bankruptcy filings. 

Message 4 of 22
pinkandgrey
Senior Contributor

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

I’m not in that crowd. I will do absolutely anything to avoid hitting 9% utilization lol. Maxing out a card has never gone through my mind.
Discover It: 21.5k
Amex Cash Magnet: 18k
Fidelity Visa: 13k
Apple Card: 4.25k
Message 5 of 22
Glen_M
Frequent Contributor

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card


@Anonymous wrote:

I think what is even more telling is that the average person polled considered anything more than $100 to be a large purchase ...

Very alarming indeed. 

 


To that point, more than 1 in 3 people —or 86 million Americans — said they're afraid they'll max out their credit card when making a large purchase, according to a new WalletHub credit cards survey. (Most of those polled considered a large purchase as anything over $100.)

...

The average household is carrying a $6,929 balance month to month and coughing up about $1,140 a year in interest, according to a separate report by NerdWallet.

 

 

Most people couldn't absorb an unexpected $1k expense, consider $100 a large purchase they would be worried about maxing their credit limit, and carry a nearly $7k balance  --  that is an alarming set of indicators that we need to do a better job of educating people about finances.

 

 

 

 

 



Message 6 of 22
jamesdwi
Valued Contributor

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

I think the number of people here fear maxing out there credit cards is much higher than 1 in 3, many of us have 6 digits of total CL accross, many of us would be screwed for a year or more if we ever managed to max out even 1/2 our cards ;-p  But this fear keeps most of us on the straight and narrow, we have been there in the past and have learned from the experience. 

 

 

Cards: Chase Southwest 20k & CSR 17k & CSP 10k & FNBO 30k Oregon Duck 5k, & AMEX BCP 32.5k & Amex Magnet 15k&amg; Hilton Surpass 7.5k & Delta Gold 12k & Zync NPSL, Fidelity AMEX 17k Commerce5.9k & Cash Forward 7.5k & Sams Club MC 20k, Paypal Extras MC 10k, Paypal Credit 7.25k CapOne Venture 15k, QS 2.5k, QS 750, Amazon 10k, Walmart 10k, Citi Simplicity 18k, Discover IT 23k and a nice stack of store cards.
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Message 7 of 22
Glen_M
Frequent Contributor

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card

The key phrase isn't that they fear maxing the card, but that they fear a single $100 charge will max them out because they are constantly at high UTI with that nearly $7k balance they're paying interest on.



Message 8 of 22
Revelate
Moderator Emeritus

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card


@Glen_M wrote:

The key phrase isn't that they fear maxing the card, but that they fear a single $100 charge will max them out because they are constantly at high UTI with that nearly $7k balance they're paying interest on.


The sad thing is 7k isn't that much debt really in the grand scheme of things.

 

Taking a second job for half a year, yeah I can absolutely state it kinda sucks working 80 hours a week for a while (not that many people are contributing more than a good 10 hours of work a day anyway) can radically change the financial picture, personal hustle to get out of debt can't be understated. 

 

I was feeling fidgity about taking a car loan which I rationally didn't need (but F it, and honestly Tesla Autopilot may be the best thing I've ever spent 5k on living in LA and our awful traffic) and sitting with non-trivial revolving debt mostly on a HELOC but also some CC's that just came out of grace period, so when the opportunity to take a second job came up I'm simply took it.  2 months later with what amounted to a Christmas bonus I'm back on track with all CC debt back in grace period and that HELOC zeroed out.  Admittedly my income is higher than average (as was my debt) and my living expenses were already pretty cheap to begin with but could use improving.

 

In that vein, virtually all of us spend on crap we just don't need objectively and it's worth attacking one's expeditures Marie Kondo style.  I'm doing that now too: when the next downturn hits I want to be back in school getting the undergrad degree I missed and chasing something that I consider to actually matter rather than making big companies more profitable which is hugely meh from a life scorecard perspective in my opinion.

 

I guess what it comes down to, if you're worried about the debt, start taking action to fix it.  Regardless of what's happening on Wall Street, it is absolutely a good time on Main Street: take advantage of it.

 




        
Message 9 of 22
EW800
Valued Contributor

Re: 1 in 3 consumers fear they will max out a credit card


@pinkandgrey wrote:
I’m not in that crowd. I will do absolutely anything to avoid hitting 9% utilization lol. Maxing out a card has never gone through my mind.

Same here.  After what my wife and went through with credit card debt prior to everything hitting the fan for us in 2011/2012, I am scared to death of credit card debt.  Mentally, I look at anything over 9% as being max'd out!   We have been free of all credit card debt (only allow about $10-$25 to report on one revolving account) since about late 2013 and doing everything possible to keep it that way.  Scary stuff!  

 

 

 

 

Year 2012: All Scores in the 520 range, during a foreclosure, CC Settlement and high UTIL. Very ugly days...
April 2023: EX8: 840; EQ8: 832; TU8: 842 -- Middle Mortgage Score: 822
In My Wallet: Discover $73.7K; Cap1 Venture $48.7K; Amex ED $38K; Amex Optima $2.5K; Amex Delta Gold $18K; Citi Costco $22.5K; Cap1 Plat $8.4K; Barclay $7K; Chase Amazon $6K; BoA Plat $21.6K; Citi TY Pref $21K; US Bank $4K; Dell $5K; Care Credit $6.5K. Total Revolving CL: $296K
My UTIL: Less than 1% - Only allow about $10 a month to report, on one account. .
Message 10 of 22
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