August 28, 2009
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News: Communities At Greatest Risk for CC Debt
The recent efforts of the Christian Science Monitor revealed which U.S. communities are at the greatest risk for higher credit card and loan debt. Debt load was examined using the combined results of three different organizations surveys to determine which communities have the highest and lowest debt. Survey questions included asking respondents to self-report how their credit card and loan debt levels correlate to their income. Most interesting was that the number of those with no debt, approximately 22%, equaled those that felt they owed more credit card and loan debt than they could afford. The balance of the respondents fell in the middle saying they owed about what they felt they could afford; the perfect bell curve.
The groups at greatest risk for high credit card debt were members of the military community. Approximately 30% of military respondents reported having more debt than they could afford. On the other side of the curve, were those members of the Mormon communities where only 14% of these respondents reporting having more debt than they could afford. Not only were the Mormons the group with the lowest percentage of respondents carrying the highest amount of credit card debt, they were also the group with the highest percentage of respondents with no card or loan debt. The other group carrying the lowest amount of loan debt was the Empty Nest group which consisted of retirees and baby boomers.
Following very closely to the Military group with 28% of the respondents reporting high debt was the Minority group consisting of large numbers of African-Americans. The Agricultural group also at the bottom of the high debt list with only 18% of the respondents reporting that they had more credit card and loan debt than they could afford; however, only 15% reported having no debt. Also very interesting was the more affluent group where 20% of the respondents reported having more debt than they could afford. Overall, 57% of the combined survey respondents reported being uncomfortable with the amount of debt they were carrying and 72% were uncomfortable with the national debt.