About 63 percent of those surveyed cited credit-card problems while 38 percent blamed a job loss or a pay cut, according to the CNN/USA Today Gallup Poll released Monday.

The poll examined the causes behind a record 1.1 million people declaring bankruptcy in 1996. The results were based on telephone interviews with 522 people who went broke last year.

"When people start spending and the economy booms, then the number of bankruptcies goes up," said Samuel Gerdano, executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute, a non-profit research group in Alexandria, Va. "That's the dark side of a good economy."

Most people surveyed said they filed for bankruptcy as a last resort. They were saddled with an average of $47,000 in debt, the poll found.

Besides trouble with plastic, 37 percent blamed mismanagement of personal finances, while 28 percent faulted medical bills and 15 percent cited problems with a business. Divorce, legal problems and taxes also were to blame.

People in the survey had an average of six credit cards when they filed. Most said it's too easy to get credit cards and 59 percent stopped using them after bankruptcy. But 89 percent said credit card companies were still sending them applications.

"Consumers are biting," said Gary Schatsky, a financial advisor with Independent Financial Advisors. "They're biting because the opportunities are good and in part because they see that the bank is making a statement to them: 'You can afford it' -- when, in reality, most cannot." (135K WAV or 135K AIF).

Robin Leonard, a credit attorney based in San Francisco, said credit-card companies are propelling a culture that encourages debt. The companies send out 14 billion solicitations a year - sometimes giving credit lines to dead people, children, or people in default on other cards. (120K WAV or 120K AIF).

Gordon Wadsworth was running an advertising agency in Atlanta when his finances spun out of control and he turned to credit cards to make ends meet.

"We were behind on the house payment, both car payments, behind on all credit cards," Wadsworth recalled. Creditors were threatening him. He hid his car so it wouldn't be repossessed. He finally sought help from a credit counseling agency and narrowly avoided bankruptcy.

Gerdano said an early warning sign of financial trouble is when a person can pay just the minimum balance on a credit card or uses a credit card for monthly bills.

"Credit is a very liberating thing that consumers have access to, but it means they have to be very careful," Gerdano said. When a person is only meeting the minimum amount due, it means he'll pay five times the original cost of an item.

While the credit card companies are throwing gasoline on the problem, they're also paying the price, said Moshe Orenbuch, a banking analyst with Sanford Bernstein. Last year, more than six percent of banks' outstanding credit-card bills were not paid, he said.

The poll said 64 percent filed for Chapter 7 protection, where creditors petition the court to have a person declared insolvent. About 29 percent filed for Chapter 13 protection, or personal bankruptcy.

The poll found that people experienced a wide range of emotions, including embarrassment, relief, fear and depression.

However, most people said they thought U.S. bankruptcy laws worked well and that they had corrected the problems that led to their bankruptcy.