Credit cards come with a wide array of benefits, from earning rewards on every purchase to taking advantage of 0% APR offers. However, if not used responsibly, they can also lead to financial difficulties. With debt reduction and responsible spending more important than ever, WalletHub set out to explore how consumers are managing these challenges.
To do so, we conducted a nationally representative survey to better understand consumer attitudes. The full results are presented in the infographic below and provide valuable context for the findings in WalletHub’s latest Credit Card Debt Study.
Key Stats
- Old Balances Still Due: 43% of people say they are still paying off credit card debt from last fall.
- No Room for More Debt: Nearly 2 in 5 Americans say they can’t handle more credit card debt.
- More Debt Ahead: 33% of people say they will have more credit card debt by the end of 2025.
- Major Source of Stress: 1 in 5 Americans are very stressed about their credit card debt.
- Uncle Sam in Rough Shape: Nearly 4 in 5 people say the country’s debt is in worse shape than their personal debt.
- Fear of Debt Tops AI: 37% of people are more concerned about never getting out of credit card debt than AI stealing their job.
- No AI in Wallet: 78% of Americans say they would not be comfortable giving AI access to their credit card account.
Full Survey & Responses
| Will you have more or less credit card debt by the end of 2025? | |
|---|---|
| Less | 67% |
| More | 33% |
| How stressed are you about your credit card debt? | |
| Not stressed at all | 41% |
| A little stressed | 39% |
| Very stressed | 20% |
| Are you concerned that tariffs will make your credit card debt worse? | |
| Yes | 53% |
| No | 47% |
| What is in worse shape? | |
| The country’s debt | 78% |
| Your personal debt | 22% |
| Would you be comfortable with giving AI access to your credit card account? | |
| No | 78% |
| Yes | 22% |
| Which do you think will happen first? | |
| You pay off your credit card debt | 57% |
| The economy goes into a recession | 43% |
| What’s more dangerous: credit card debt or guns? | |
| Guns | 60% |
| Credit card debt | 40% |
| Can you handle more credit card debt? | |
| Yes | 63% |
| No | 37% |
| Which are you more concerned about? | |
| AI stealing your job | 63% |
| Never getting out of credit card debt | 37% |
| Are you still paying off credit card debt from last fall? | |
| No | 57% |
| Yes | 43% |
Note: Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.
Survey Methodology
This report reflects the results of a nationally representative online survey of 200 respondents.
After all responses were collected, we normalized the data by age, gender and income so the sample would reflect U.S. demographics.
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