Fifty-five percent believe that purchase protections of a credit card and a debit card are the same. Twenty-five percent do not think they have the same protections and one third do not know what the protections are. National Consumers League President Linda F. Golodner says, The survey shows that consumers don t understand their liability limits, and are confused about protections offered by banks and debit card providers. Golodner also says The bottom line is consumers have to get control of their own finances and to understand what is best for themselves cash, checks, debit cards or credit cards. NCL Bulleting, Vol.
Consumers often wonder if their approach to using credit cards is typical.
This suggests that it is very unusual for consumers to have a five-figure level of credit card debt whether you look at those with or without a balance, less than 5 percent of the population carry such large balances on credit cards. That is up 5.1 percent from the same 12-month period in 1997. The increase continues to be driven by personal filings. Total personal filings increased by 5.8 percent to 1,389,839 for the period. Findings from another study on the capacity of debtors filing for bankruptcy to pay off their debts in 5 years are also available from the American Bankruptcy Institute.