Credit card debt stressful for women

29/01/2010

The majority of Australians with credit cards will spend the first three months of 2010 paying off their spending, which averaged more than $1,000 during the 2009-2010 festive and holiday season and now totals a balance of more than $3,200.

According to an exclusive national study commissioned by Aussie, half of all respondents admitted they had accrued one-third or more of their current debt over Christmas alone. The study also revealed 29.1 per cent said they spent up to $2,500, and 19.9 per cent spent between $2,500 and $10,000 over the holiday period. And the majority of respondents were paying high levels of interest with more than half paying 16 to 20 per cent on their purchases, with high annual fees on top.

The research showed 78.5 per cent of respondents believed it would only take three months to pay off their balances, with 9.7 per cent estimating three to six months and 11.8 per cent believing they would not clear their balance until the second half of the year.

While overall, three-quarters of respondents said they believed it would not be “very hard” to pay off their debt, women demonstrated greater debt stress than their male counterparts. One in three women thought the debt would be “somewhat hard to very hard” to pay off, with 34.2 per cent saying they will have to “go without” in order to clear the balance.

Source: Aussie Home Loans