How Most Americans Handle a $1000 Emergency Expense

A recent survey conducted by LendingTree found that more than half of Americans cannot cover a $1,000 emergency with cash or savings. Forty-eight percent of Americans say they could handle a $1,000 emergency expense by using cash or savings in their bank accounts.

Of the those Americans who could not handle a $1,000 emergency, whether it be a health issue or an urgent home repair, 16 percent said they would borrow from friends or family. Nine percent said they would sell something, another nine percent said they would use a credit card, seven percent said they would work more, and six percent said they would get a loan or paycheck advance.

Additionally, according to the report, six out of 10 Americans have had an emergency in the past year that cost them $1,000 or more and one-third of Americans are currently in debt from an emergency expense they could not afford cover. Of Americans who had to go into debt to cover a past emergency, one-third still owe $5,000 or more for this expense and about 18 percent have emergency debt balances of $10,000 or more.

LendingTree also announced at the end of last week that it has reached an agreement to acquire ValuePenguin for a total consideration of $105 million. ValuePenguin presents consumers and business owners with loan alternatives. In October, LendingTree acquired QuoteWizard.com, an insurance comparison marketplace, rounding out LendingTree as a more full financial advisory company.

“We are thrilled to add ValuePenguin’s talented team and expertise to our portfolio,” said Doug Lebda, Founder and CEO of LendingTree.  “Our recent QuoteWizard acquisition was our first step toward leadership in insurance customer acquisition. Adding ValuePenguin’s high-quality content and SEO capability to QuoteWizard’s proprietary technology and carrier network will set us apart and enable us to provide immense value to carriers and agents. Both businesses will benefit from LendingTree’s strong brand and extensive marketing capabilities.  We are in a great position to achieve further scale in the insurance space as well as the broader financial services industry.”