IMGCAP(1)]
Hispanic consumers are not as affected by the credit card crunch as non-Hispanics because relatively few of them use credit cards, recent survey results suggest. Mintel Comperemedia featured the results last week during a Web seminar on Hispanics and their finances. Of the 24,898 consumers surveyed for Mintel's Hispanic Finances and Financial Services U.S. report released in March, only 46% of Hispanics had credit cards before the recession compared with 72% of the non-Hispanic population that did, Leylha Ahuile, Mintel senior multicultural analyst, tells CardLine. "A lot of Americans are having to make adjustments in their behavior as credit lines shrink and interest rates go up," but Hispanics do not use as many credit cards, so they have not had to make the same adjustments, she says. "If anything, we have some things to learn about how Hispanics approach credit card use," Ahuile says, noting Hispanics generally prefer to use cash and not spend more than what they have. Hispanics also tend not to trust banks because they often are unreliable in their countries of origin, and that is why many do not use products such as credit cards, she says. While credit card debt may not be an issue, Hispanics still are affected by the recession, especially for those seeking car and home loans, Ahuile says.
