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BUSINESS

32% Owe More Money Than Last Year

At a time when confidence in the nation’s banking industry is at an all-time low, the number of Americans who say they owe more money than they did last year ties its all-time high.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of American Adults shows that 32% owe more money today than they did a year ago. That’s up from 27% in October and matches a high last reached in October 2009. This finding has fallen as low as 23% in surveys since April 2009.

Now, 28% say they owe less money than they did a year ago, down six points from last month and the lowest finding since October 2009. Thirty-six percent (36%) say they owe about the same amount of money. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Twenty-six percent (26%) say the interest rates they’re paying are higher than they were a year ago, while 22% say they are lower. Forty-six percent (46%) say they’re paying about the same amount in interest as they were a year ago. Since 2009, the number of adults who report paying higher interest rates compared to the previous year has ranged from 21% to 32%.

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The survey of 1,000 American Adults nationwide was conducted on November 11-12, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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