The holiday season is finally over but it’s pretty apparent that a lot of America will be living with the consequences for months to come, specifically we are talking about holiday debt. A new LendingTree survey finds:
- 36% of consumers took on holiday debt this past season.
- That’s up from 31% in 2020.
- The average amount of holiday debt shoppers incurred this year is $1,249.
- Parents with children under 18 are the most likely to have taken on holiday debt (51%), followed by those 25 to 40 (50%).
- The average amount of debt those groups took on equaled $1,462.
- Gen Z (18 to 24-year-olds) took on the least amount of holiday debt, only about $821.
- But all this debt isn’t a surprise to many, with 47% of those who are in debt because of the holidays saying they had planned for it to happen.
- As for the most popular forms of holiday debt, non-store credit cards are the most popular (62%), followed by:
- Buy now, pay later: 33%
- Store credit cards: 27%
- Personal loans: 23%
- Payday/title loans: 13%
- Borrowing from friends/family: 12%
- Home equity loans: 9%
- Other: 4%
- As for how long it will take folks to pay off that debt, 82% say it won’t happen within one month.
- Most (26%) say it will happen within three months.
Source:LendingTree