Texans have higher credit-card balances, and tougher times paying them down, than most Americans – and web-search statistics reveal that people are increasingly Googling to learn how to get on a household budget and stick to it.
That the combined fiscal takeaway from a pair of unrelated studies that, when viewed together, offer a glimpse at our collective spending choices.
The typical Texan has more than $11,000 in credit card debt, according to money expert Jill Gonzalez of WalletHub. That’s far higher than the national average of $8,000.
Further, she says, the average Houston paydown of credit-card debt in the first quarter of the year was less than $500.
All of this helps put Texas in the low Tier nationally for managing credit card debt.
A Liberty Bank study found Texans – at rates higher than that of most Americans -- are looking up info online about the methods and benefits of budgeting. It's dictated by need.
Gonzalez offer a tip if you feel like you're drowning in debt.
She says if you're really pinched, pay as much as you can on the card with the highest interest rate ... and pay just the minimum on the rest.
She tells Newsradio 740 KTRH that that’s a better strategy than just sprinkling spare money over all the accounts.
<PSI_END_OBJECT>Still, people are optimistic: 89-percent of those polled expect to have less debt by year's end.