74% of Consumers Feel Pinch of Rising Monthly Bills

Inflation has settled in, stubbornly, near 40-year highs.

As found in “The New Reality Check,” a PYMNTS and LendingClub collaboration, 92% of consumers said they have noticed higher prices in the products they purchased, while 74% saw increases in their monthly bills.

Those are ominous stats in an environment where 60% of United States consumers are living paycheck to paycheck — including 45% of those earning more than $100,000 annually.

Regardless of whether the more than 2,300 individuals surveyed said they live paycheck to paycheck and have difficulties paying their bills — or whether they do not find it difficult to pay those bills — the increases are felt and noticed across the board.

Most notably, the universal increases are seen in the expenses that must be paid to maintain daily existence. One must, after all, get to work, get the kids off to school, and do all manner of errands. In that case, it may not come as much of a surprise to find that fuel was among the most “considerable” expenses encountered in the past 12 months. Groceries followed suit, cited as an expense with considerable price increases by 62% of the overall sample.