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what percentage of americans are in debt to credit card companies?*

this is a test question and I wasn't there the day we went over it, does anybody know the answer? my test is in a few hours and I can only seem to find the amount of debt, rather than the % of americans in debt. thanks!

Answers:

1) I don't know the percentage but over 50% of credit card holders pay the credit card bill in full every month. I don't consider that being in debt, but statistics may include them. Not every American has credit cards. I'd guestimate less than 25% of American are in debt to credit card companies.

2) http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/creditcardsmarts/P74808.asp Read this article.... somewhere down the line you will find a quote that 23.8% of Americans do not carry any credit cards. That leaves 76.8 percent that own credit cards and could therefore be considered in debt to the credit card companies? Your teacher didn't specify what he considers being in debt to the credit card companies.Therefore any debt, even the one that get paid off at the end of the billing statement, could count.

3) This data is for "households". 78% of households have credit cards. That leaves 22% of households with no credit cards at all, and therefore no chance to carry debt on credit cards. Of those with credit cards, a full 50% do not carry any debt. They either don't use the cards, or pay them off monthly. So that's 39% of households with credit cards, but no debt. Added to the 22% with no credit cards at all, 61% of households have no credit card debt at all. That leaves 39% with credit card debt. I can't find how much debt those 39% carry. It could be just a little, used judiciously, or it could be a lot, used foolishly.

4) I would assume nearly 90%...

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