If you pay your credit card bills late, you are in good company. Almost 58 million Americans admit they don’t pay their bills on time. That is almost 26 percent of all adult Americans.
The 2009 Consumer Financial Literacy Survey was released in Washington, DC on Tuesday by the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC). The survey went on to find that nearly one-third of adults with no significant savings (29%) say that they would use credit cards if they had an emergency or had to pay an unexpected expense. This compares with 57 percent who claim that they would borrow for emergency spending from friends or family, 49% who would pay cash, 26 percent who would borrow from a bank, and 17 percent who would ignore paying for other obligations. Six percent have no idea how they would pay for an emergeny, the survey said.
When asked if they could live without using credit cards for their monthly expenses, 61 percent said they were already living without credit cards, and 37 percent said they use credit cards on a monthly basis. Of those who use cards, one-third said they could live without credit cards if they had to.
