Many Americans have a skewed perception of their finances according to a recent study that compared how much debt households thought they had with how much lenders said they actually had. Researchers compared family-reported figures from the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) with creditor-reported data from the Consumer Credit Panel (CCP). When it comes to secured debt such as mortgages, households's estimates were roughly on target. But households estimated that they owed about 40 percent less than their lenders said they owed on credit cards—about $440 billion compared to $731 billion. For student debts, families listed that their total student loans amounted to about 25 percent less than what appeared on credit reports.