LendingClub Corporation (NYSE: LC), the parent company of LendingClub Bank, America’s leading digital marketplace bank, today released key findings from the 29th edition of the Reality Check: Paycheck-To-Paycheck research series, conducted in partnership with PYMNTS Intelligence. The Credit Card Use Deep Dive Edition examines the financial lifestyles of U.S. consumers and explores how they use credit cards to manage their cash flows to get by. This edition draws on insights from a survey of 3,252 U.S. consumers conducted from Nov. 6 to Nov. 22 and an analysis of other economic data.
The Paycheck-to-Paycheck Landscape
As of November 2023, 62% of consumers lived paycheck to paycheck, mirroring last year’s statistics and slightly higher than last month. For those Americans, this means that they need their next paycheck to cover their monthly financial outflows. Among income brackets, 77% of consumers earning less than $50,000 annually lived paycheck to paycheck as of November 2023, as did 67% of those earning between $50,000 and $100,000 and 45% of consumers earning more than $100,000. These shares have also remained stable since last year, indicating that U.S. consumers, in the face of ongoing inflation, have adjusted their spending where they can and still see their financial obligations outpace their incomes.
Credit Card Ownership
Consumers living paycheck to paycheck own nearly 60% of the credit cards in the U.S. Moreover 80% of paycheck-to-paycheck consumers own at least one credit card, and two credit cards on average. Overall, 54% of all consumers surveyed report having super-prime credit scores, with 77% of those not living paycheck to paycheck saying they have these high scores. That said, paycheck-to-paycheck living does not preclude consumers from these high scores, with 40% of these consumers report having super-prime credit scores. The data also shows that paycheck-to-paycheck consumers are more likely to use debit cards than credit cards…
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