CREDIT CARD USAGE BEHAVIOR BETWEEN ANGLES AND HISPANICS

Credit cards are becoming as conspicuous as money itself: Surveys of P ersonal Finances report that the credit card usage rate among Hispanic s has increased over the past few years relative to Anglos. Moderated by an acculturation covariate, this article explores the differences b etween Angles and Mexican Americans on their bank and retail credit co rd usage behavior A pretested bilingual self-administered questionnair e was mailed to 6,863 households in a Southwestern city with a large H ispanic population. A final sample of 1,132 subjects was analyzed to t est four hypotheses. Contrary to preview research findings, Angles and Hispanic Americans showed no significant differences in their credit card usage behavior for bank, store, and gas credit cards when control ling for education and income.