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One in Five Expect to Borrow to Heat Homes This Winter
For perhaps as many as 27 million American adults, keeping warm this winter will mean borrowing money and 20 million will use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills, according to a CreditCards.com poll.
Nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will need to borrow money to pay winter heating bills; 9 percent will need to use credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills.
I'd like to comment further on the article but I can't seem to get past the media math. I'm apparently proof that shock and awe works.
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[image: Mortgage Rates] Note: Mortgage rates are from MortgageNewsDaily.com
and are for top tier scenarios.
Friday:
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6 comments:
220, 221 , whatever it takes. (Michael Keaton, Mr. Mom)
for the trailing two quintiles, borrowing money and whipping out the plastic are *not* synonymous, since they really don't have much access to the mainstream consumer credit companies.
12% + 9% = ~20%
MAB,
Ah, Ah, Ah... Nobody says the "B" word! - Micheal Keaton, Betelgeuse
troy,
That 9% is included in the 12%. Using credit cards is borrowing money.
In other words, "one in five expect to borrow" is not compatible with "nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will need to borrow."
mark, how many adults in this country? The numbers in the article work out to 220-225M.
I agree the title doesn't match the body, but I like I said, people who don't have access to plastic don't consider consumer credit "borrowing", since even if these people have credit they generally can't pay it back, while "borrowing" for the lower quintile actually DOES get paid back, via payday loans and the like.
troy,
I think the 220-225M range is fairly accurate.
http://www.census.gov/popest/national/asrh/
I almost didn't spot the "adult" word earlier and very nearly heckled the 12% reading itself. Whew!
If you continue to the link provided in the article, it goes into more detail about how much pain is being delivered to the less well off among us and does a better job of explaining it.
Nearly 12 percent of Americans say they will have to borrow money to pay winter heating bills; the figure rises to 23 percent among those earning less than $30,000 a year. Nine percent say they will use their credit cards to be able to afford their heating bills.
That being said, it is hard to paint a happy face on the situation. Paying for heating costs on credit (especially credit card debt) is a very slippery slope.
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