Banking, finance, and taxes

Americans Are Ashamed to Admit Credit Card Debt

Paul Ausick

Published: January 19, 2016 10:25 am

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 2:53 pm

There is, apparently, a stigma attached to carrying credit card debt. More than a third of Americans say they would be embarrassed to let others know that they are not paying off their credit card debt in full every month, more than 40% say they believe they will be judged by family and friends because of credit card debt, and nearly 50% say they would be less interested in dating someone who has credit card debt.

The surprising thing is that Americans’ average credit card debt is $15,355. Talk about the elephant in the room.

The data were reported Tuesday by NerdWallet, which conducted a survey of more than 2,000 U.S. adults and found that 28% of Americans who earn less than $50,000 a year are embarrassed by their credit card debt while nearly 40% of those making at least $100,000 said they would be embarrassed by acknowledging credit card debt.

A NerdWallet executive said:

It’s no surprise that shame about debt isn’t necessarily productive in preventing or eradicating it. … Shame doesn’t guarantee success. The only way to pay off debt is to face it head on and make a plan to get rid of it.

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People living in the Midwest are most likely to be embarrassed by the debt (61%) and Southerners are next most likely (56%).

Other data points from the survey include:

• More than half of millennials with credit card debt (55%) say they would feel judged if friends and family knew how much debt they were carrying.
• Men in every age group said they would feel more judged by others, with millennials again (65%) posting the highest score. Millennial women (46%) felt the pressure less.
• More than half (51%) of women would be less interested in dating someone with credit card debt compared with 46% of men.
• Older Americans (62%, aged 65 and older) would be less interested in dating someone with credit card debt compared with 46% of millennials.
• The older Americans, however, would feel less judged (26%) for having debt than would millennials (55%).