61% w/Credit Card Debt Willing to Go Deeper For Holidays Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 3:11 PM

The holidays bring out the best and worst in people, and always tend to make consumers go into debt.

In October, CreditCards.com commissioned YouGov Plc to conduct a survey of 2,600 adults, including 2,143 credit card holders. Fieldwork was undertaken Oct. 2-4, 2019. The survey was carried out online.

Results of the survey show that 61% of those who carry a card balance are willing to add to their deficit this holiday season, compared to 30% of cardholders who do not currently have credit card debt.  And more than half (52%) of millennials surveyed said they are willing to add to their debt, as opposed to 49% of Gen Xers and 34% of baby boomers.

Check out these other notable results from the holiday debt poll:

• Those in debt are more willing to add to it. More than half of credit card debtors (51%) said they think the holidays are a valid reason to add to their debt, but only a small percentage of those with no debt agreed (26%);
• Kids matter. When it comes to the holidays children are the stars—almost two-thirds of parents (65%) with kids under 18 said they would be fine with adding to their card debt during the season and more than half (56%) responded that they felt it was fine to do so;
• Genders differ. Men with credit cards are more willing to take on holiday card debt than women (50% versus 41%);
• The right reasons? Among cardholders who are willing to take on credit card debt this holiday season, almost half (46%) said it was to please a family member or friend and a large percentage (42%) said it was to make themselves happy. Thirty-eight percent said it was to please their children and another 38% said it was to make their partners happy; and
• The big payoff. Those surveyed shared their plans to pay off that holiday debt: More than half (57%) said they would pay more than the minimum each month, some planned to cut expenses (38%), others (21%) said they were planning to get a balance transfer card, a few (18%) said they planned to get a side gig, such as freelancing, selling on Etsy, or driving for Uber, and even fewer (16%) reported they intended to sell unneeded possessions.

The fact that more than 60% of credit card debtors are willing to go into further debt is a testament to the natural social pressure to get gifts for those you genuinely care about. The fact that 52% of millennials don’t mind going further into debt points toward not having a fundamental understanding of the consequences.

Older consumers are somewhat less likely to make these financial mistakes because they have experienced the consequences.

Men are probably more willing to go into debt over holiday spending than women because they want to feel as though they have provided for their loved ones.