Credit Cards > Credit Card News > CreditCards.com 'Taking Charge' graphs, part 2: People adapt card use to changed economy

The second annual “Taking Charge” survey was conducted for CreditCards.com June 4-26, 2008, by GfK Roper Public Affairs. The random telephone poll surveyed 1,001 Americans 18 and over. Respondents were read questions and statements about credit cards and asked their opinions. Here are the questions, statements and results:

Thinking about the purchases you made on credit cards last month, did you spend more, less or about the same as normal on household living expenses, such as groceries?		Did the outstanding balance on your credit cards -- that is, the amount that you still owe on all of your credit cards after you made payments -- increase, decrease or stay about the same in the last 30 days?

Thinking about the purchases you made on credit cards last month, did you spend more, less or about the same as normal on discretionary spending, such as eating out and buying things at the mall?		Thinking about the purchases you made on credit cards last month, did you spend more, less or about the same as normal on major purchases, such as major appliances or furniture?

At times I worry about how I'm going to pay my credit cards.		How much did you worry about paying your credit card bills last month?

I actively monitor the interest rates on my credit cards.		I am always looking for low interest rates to transfer my outstanding credit card balances.

Poll methodology
The 2008 "Taking Charge" survey was conducted June 4-26, 2008, by GfK Roper Public Affairs on behalf of CreditCards.com, via random digit dialing phone interviews with 1,001 interview subjects.

The total margin of error on weighted data for the full sample is plus or minus 3 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level. Because of rounding, numbers may not add up to 100 percent.