NEW YORK, NY — (Marketwired) — 11/12/13 — In a new survey released today, Hearst-owned account management service asked consumers about their anticipated spending and credit card behavior as they approach the busiest shopping season of the year. The survey found that nearly half of Americans (43.2 percent) don-t plan on changing their spending habits this year, but almost one in seven are more likely to sign up for store credit cards to get discounts during the holidays. The survey also found significant differences in holiday spending plans in various areas of the country, as well as between men and women.
“Given the current economic situation, we felt it was important to look at consumer spending and credit card habits for the holidays, particularly at how behavior differs this time of year and how this year-s behavior will compare to last year-s,” said Jim Schinella, CEO of Manilla. “We found that expectations for holiday spending differed across regions, with some areas planning significantly less spending than last year while others plan to spend about the same, pointing to the fact that not everyone is impacted equally by current financial realities.”
Highlights from the survey include:
Residents of New England are most confident about their finances:
Only 16 percent of New England respondents plan on spending less this year than they did last year, versus an average of 41 percent in other regions.
60 percent of New England residents plan to start their holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, versus just 44 percent in other areas.
Rocky Mountain and Southeast residents are planning to cut back the most:
More than half of residents plan to spend less for the 2013 holidays than they did in 2012 (58.3 percent and 57 percent, respectively, versus an average of 29 percent elsewhere).
Rocky Mountain residents will also be swiping the most plastic. One-third of respondents there plan to increase credit card usage during the holidays.
Those residents also expect to be paying off their holiday debt longer, with 16.7 percent indicating they will be paying bills for more than six months after the holidays, versus just 2.4 percent of the rest of the country.
Expect a lot of slighted family members in the Great Lakes: more than one in five respondents said they are cutting a family member from their gift list to help cut down on costs.
Malls in the Great Lakes, Plains and Southwest regions will be crowded on Thanksgiving weekend — one in five residents there indicated they plan to kick off holiday shopping on Thanksgiving or Black Friday, versus 7.5 percent of respondents in other regions.
Women are more conscious of their finances this year: 43.3 percent of female respondents said they planned to spend less this year, versus 34 percent of men.
Women are also more likely to forget to pay their holiday bills: 37.2 percent of female respondents have forgotten a bill during the hectic season, versus 29.4 percent of men.
Men are more than three times more likely than women to split their holiday spending across two or more credit cards.
Men and women are equally likely to procrastinate on holiday shopping: 26 percent of both groups plan on waiting until after Black Friday to kick off their holiday shopping (the most common response).
Manilla-s platform provides convenient, secure online access to all household accounts and services for more than 3,500 businesses. The free service helps consumers manage all of their household accounts, including financial accounts, utilities, subscriptions, daily deals and travel rewards programs, all through Manilla.com or via the Manilla Android or iOS mobile apps.
Manilla organizes and simplifies people-s lives by providing one secure access point to all household accounts and services. The free digital mailbox service helps consumers manage their mail and household accounts, including financial accounts, utilities, subscriptions, daily deals, and travel rewards programs, all through Manilla.com. Consumers can also use all of the Manilla features on the go by using Manilla-s 4+ star customer-rated Android and iOS mobile apps. Under a single password, Manilla gives customers an automated, organized view of all of their account information, text and email reminders to pay bills, renew expiring subscriptions, and manage soon-to-expire daily deals, all with unlimited storage and seamless document retrieval.
Manilla is a company incubated within and backed by Hearst Corporation. Manilla is the recipient of the Webby Award and People-s Voice Award for Best Banking/Bill Pay Service and was chosen as ABC News “App of the Week,” as one of Money Magazine-s “Top Money Apps” and as one of PCMag.com-s Top 100 Websites. For more information, please visit .
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