3 in 10 Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings

Around three in 10 Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings, a new survey found.

In the Bankrate survey, 29 percent said they have more credit card debt than emergency savings. That’s the highest rate since the consumer financial services company started conducting the survey in 2011.

“It’s an indicator of the strain that many households are feeling with debt loads rising and interest rates rising — often times income has not kept pace,” said Greg McBride, CFA and chief financial analyst at Bankrate.

Last year, 21 percent of people surveyed said they had more credit card debt than emergency savings.

Less than half of households — 44 percent — have more emergency savings than credit card debt, the survey said.

“That can be a byproduct of overspending or a byproduct of a specific event whether it’s a big medical expense, joblessness or reduced income, a major car repair or in the case of furloughed workers, missing a paycheck,” McBride said.

Credit card debt is expensive to accumulate with interest rates above 17 percent, according to data compiled by Bankrate. That means the overall amount owed can increase nearly 20 percent when a cardholder carries a balance.

Many debtholders don’t know if they’ll ever improve their financial situation.

A survey from CreditCards.com released last month found that 65 percent of American adults with debt don’t know when or if they will ever be debtfree.

Of people with debt, 41 percent said they don’t know when they’ll pay off debt and another 25 percent expect to die in debt.