NEW YORK, Feb. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Approximately one in four Americans (24%) have more credit card debt than emergency savings and another 13% have neither credit card debt nor emergency savings, according to a new Bankrate.com (NYSE: RATE) report.

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"These numbers mean that three out of every eight Americans are teetering on the edge of financial disaster," said Greg McBride, CFA, Bankrate.com's chief financial analyst. "People between the ages of 30 and 49 are in the worst shape, probably because of the expenses associated with raising children and paying a mortgage."

All told, 58% of Americans have more emergency savings than credit card debt, up from 51% last year and 55% in 2013.

Improvement was also reflected in Bankrate's Financial Security Index, which hit a new high for the second month in a row (104.8). The Index debuted in December 2010 and readings above 100 indicate improved financial security compared to one year previous. All five categories (savings, debt, net worth, job security and overall financial situation) improved over the past month.


    --  24% of Americans feel more secure in their jobs than they did a year
        ago, twice as many as the 12% who currently feel less secure.
    --  People are feeling better about their net worth by a similar margin.
    --  Just 16% say their overall financial situation is worse than last year,
        a new low.
    --  Americans are feeling better about their debt loads than at any point
        since June 2013.
    --  Even savings, long the laggard of financial security, is closing the
        gap. Whereas the percentage of Americans less comfortable with their
        savings used to routinely outnumber those who were more comfortable by a
        2-to-1 margin, the divide has narrowed dramatically. 28% are less
        comfortable with their savings now versus February 2014 and 22% are more
        comfortable.
    --  Men and women both note improved financial security compared to one year
        ago, as well as improvement over the past month. Men continue to feel
        better about their financial security than women (overall and on each of
        the five components).

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:

http://www.bankrate.com/finance/consumer-index/financial-security-charts-0215.aspx

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,003 adults living in the continental United States. Interviews were conducted by landline (501) and cell phone (502, including 300 without a landline phone) in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from February 5-8, 2015. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.

Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com, InsuranceQuotes.com and Caring.com, our flagship websites, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, Insweb.com, CreditCards.ca, and NetQuote.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of over 600 local markets, Bankrate generates rate tables in all 50 U.S. states. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 100 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information:

Ted Rossman
Public Relations Director
ted.rossman@bankrate.com
(917) 368-8635

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SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.