AUSTIN, Texas–With credit card debt hitting new records, some experts are beginning to worry about the ability of many Americans to pay off rising debt levels.
A new study from CreditCards.com calculates that up to 31 million Americans with credit card debt believe they will never be able to pay it off and will die with debt.
That includes 30% of respondents who said they thought they would never be out of debt, and an additional 38% who said they didn’t know when they would be debt-free, the study found.
Key findings of the survey of 1,114 U.S. adults include:
- Who is most down about their debt? People who take out payday loans and have medical debts are the most pessimistic about repaying those obligations, with about half of each group anticipating they will carry those debts to the grave, according to the poll. Those who owe money on credit cards, student loans, mortgages and auto loans feel better about their repayment prospects.
- The older people are, the gloomier they get about debt: Pessimism about living debt-free is abundant and increases with age. Of those carrying debt, 65% of Millennials (ages 18-36) either don't know when they'll pay it off or think they never will. That percentage goes up with each generation: with 68% of Generation X (37-52), 70% of Baby Boomers (53-71) and 83% of the Silent Generation (72+) doubting their abilities to ever get out of debt.
- Out of the red–in nine years: Of those who do see light at the end of the tunnel and who offered an estimate of how soon they would escape debt, the average debtor expects to have everything paid off in nine years, the report found.