Poll: Many See Credit Card Rate Hikes
This poll was taken as part of CBS News' "Where America Stands" series, an in-depth look at where the country stands today on key topics and an outlook for the future decade.
The poll finds that most American credit card holders (59 percent) say their card usage has remained steady over the past few months. But twice as many say they have cut back their card usage (28 percent) as say they have increased it (12 percent).
Not surprisingly, those who have experienced higher interest rates in the last few months are more inclined to have reduced their credit card use (34 percent) rather than increased it (16 percent). Still, 47 percent have not changed how often they use their credit cards despite the rate increase.
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Americans across all income groups are more likely to say their credit card use has decreased in recent months, not increased. However, credit card holders who earn less than $50,000 annually are twice as likely as those earning more to have increased their credit card use.
The credit card habits of Americans with high incomes -- over $100,000 -- have remained the most stable, with 71 percent saying their credit card usage over the past few months has been the same as usual.
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1084 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone February 5-10, 2010. Phone numbers were dialed from random digit dial samples of both standard land-line and cell phones. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher.
This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.