I’ve talked to several people who are eagerly awaiting their tax rebate checks and plan to spend the cash, despite media reports indicating lots of folks plan to use the funds to pay down debt. For example, according to this USA Today story:

Though consumers don’t always do what they say they will, some polls suggest that the rebates are unlikely to spend the economy out of trouble. According to a survey by CCH, which publishes tax reference guides and tax software, 47% of adults say they plan to use their rebates to pay down debt; 32% say they plan to save the money.

Just 21% intend to spend it.

In a separate survey by H&R Block, 45% of Americans said they plan to use the rebate to pay bills, 18% plan to invest the money and 21% expect to use it for necessities, such as groceries. Only 16% said they’d spend it on non-necessities, such as a vacation.

It seems Americans have plenty of credit cards to either pay down, or use for new spending. According to Foreign Policy magazine, the U.S. has five cards per person. At the opposite end of the scale is India, with 64.6 people per card.