Credit Card Use: Australian Credit Card Usage Statistics
Posted November 15th, 2009 and last modified June 15th, 2011
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Looking at credit card use by assessing credit card statistics is only of any use if the number of polled individuals is high enough to provide a fair representation.
A HILDA (Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia) Survey asked a fair number of people – 12,000 – about their credit card use, and the results make for interesting, if not convincing, reading.
They should also be read in the light of their being based on 2006 data. As we all know, a lot has changed in the past eighteen months, and credit card use has specifically taken a hit.
The HILDA Survey showed that, generally speaking, Australians claim to use their cards intelligently. It should be remembered that surveys are only based on claims, and these may be tainted by what the individual believes the surveyor wants to hear, or embarrassment at admitting the truth of the situation. Where credit card use is concerned, the effects of misuse can be so great that some people may not want to own up to their true behaviour, as this could be tantamount to accepting they have acted like an idiot.
This is especially so because the correct way to use a credit card is hardly a mystery. You pay only for what you can afford to pay off, and then you do pay it off in full, every month without fail.
There are around 13.5 million credit cards in Australia, and 60% of adults own one. The average credit limit in 2006 was $5,000. Of those surveyed, only 16% admitted to “never” or “rarely” paying off their credit card balance. Taking everything into account, HILDA’s conclusion was that just 4.5% of the population will ever experience a serious credit card debt problem. However, with the average unpaid balance in 2006 standing at $3,699, unless that 16% is actually carrying the vast (and truly frightening) bulk of the debt, it’s possible that the other 84% are not being entirely straight about their credit card use.
One statistic of note is that 29% of the people questioned who were suffering credit card debt in 2006 said they had also suffered similar problems in 2002. This would suggest that credit card use is a difficult habit to break, however negatively it is carried out.
The only way to properly determine credit card use would be to split up debts owed into percentages, from those who owe nothing up to those who owe the greatest. Taking an average over 13.5 million cards is far too vague a way to determine how individuals are behaving, and interviewing 12,000 people without verifying their answers against their credit card statements and credit histories is, again, a very inaccurate science.
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