creditcard debt is clouding americans’ capacity to stash away rainyday savings more than onethird of people 36 say their creditcard debts are larger than the size of their emergency savings up from 22 last year according to a poll released on thursday by bankratecom this year’s figure is a record in the survey’s 12year history the ability to hold onto emergency savings has been a challenge in a time of high inflation and rising interest rates for example new offers for creditcard annual percentage rates or aprs averaged 1994 as of late february according to bankrate’s analysis nearly four in ten survey participants 39 say they either have less emergency savings or none at all compared to a year ago according to the latest poll last year 34 said that was the case it’s another sign of the debt and financial stress that millions of americans are coping with in a “lessthanoptimal” economy said mark hamrick senior economic analyst at bankrate “many have resorted to tapping their emergency savings if they have it or have taken on credit card debt or some combination” he said in a statement one quarter of people said they would have to use credit cards to cover a 1000 expense bankrate’s survey said that’s up from 20 a year ago “with oneinfour americans telling us they would react to a large emergency expense by using a credit card their timing couldn’t be worse” hamrick said americans added 61 billion to their creditcard balances during the fourth quarter according to figures released last week by the federal reserve bank of new york consumers held a total of 986 billion in creditcard debt which now exceeds prepandemic levels meanwhile personal savings rates are also under pressure households tucked away 34 of their aftertax disposable income in december up from 29 in the prior month according to the commerce department’s bureau of economic analysis savings had fallen late last year to the second lowest level on record going back to 1959 in january the inflation rate was 64 cooling slightly from 65 a month earlier and significantly below the 91 peak rate recorded in june one upside with high interest rates it’s especially rewarding to reap rewards from savings accounts and other places to park cash the annual percentage yields for online highyield savings accounts are now averaging 33 and some accounts offer rates of up to 45 according to depositaccountscom next year employers can choose to offer emergency savings accounts alongside the retirement savings accounts they provide for workers this was one part of the yearend spending bill congress passed in december but next year is a long way off especially as the federal reserve has signaled that it may still push benchmark interest rates higher