More than a quarter of U.S. lack emergency savings

More than one out of four Americans have no emergency savings, the highest number in five years, according to a poll released Tuesday by Bankrate.com.

Twenty-nine percent of Americans said they had emergency savings, up from 26 percent last year, reported Bankrate.com, a consumer website based in North Palm Beach.

Only 22 percent of those polled said they had saved enough money to cover at least six months’ expenses to cover an emergency, the poll found. Twenty-one percent have less than three months’ expenses saved, and only 15 percent have enough to cover between 3 months’ and five months’ expenses. The poll of 1,000 had a 3.7 percent margin of error.