Poll reveals extent of holiday credit-card debt

Many shoppers will take until March to pay off holiday debt.
NEW YORK (AP) -- It's known as the "holiday debt hangover," and this year it could be a doozy.
The phrase refers to the debt -- mainly credit card bills -- that consumers accumulate as they shop for Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa.
A new poll by Consumer Reports magazine, which is published by the nonprofit advocacy group Consumers Union in Yonkers, N.Y., found that 23 percent of those surveyed said they will not pay off their holiday debt until March or later.
More than one-quarter said they use credit cards most often when holiday shopping, contributing to the 63.6 billion charged on credit cards throughout the shopping season.
"Credit cards can be hazardous to your holiday spending," Tod Marks, senior editor of Consumer Reports said of the results. "With the average household saddled with 9,000 in credit debt already, anything that significantly adds to that ... could be potentially devastating."
He noted that shopping with cash "forces you to be much more disciplined" because you can't buy what you can't pay for.
Other statistics
Other findings:
Of those using credit cards, 17 percent plan to accumulate 1,000 or more in holiday charges.
After the holidays, 16 percent of consumers plan on returning some of the gifts they receive, with men (21 percent) more likely to do returns than women (12 percent).
Shoppers, on average, will buy 15 gifts for the holidays.
One-third say they won't finish their holiday shopping until Dec. 23 or later. One-tenth won't be done until the evening of Dec. 24.
Among those with pets, more than half plan holiday gifts for their animals.
Consumer Reports' national research center conducted the survey by phone Dec. 7-10. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.