BANGOR – A national personal finance adviser wants consumers to give themselves a present this holiday season by eliminating high interest rates and credit cards from their holiday shopping.

Today is National Cut-Up-Your-Credit-Card Day, an unofficial celebration created by James E. Stowers, a self-made billionaire, philanthropist and author of numerous books on achieving financial independence. The day is intended to expose American consumers’ dependence on credit cards.

Consumers are being encouraged to break their reliance on plastic and adopt a cash-only policy when hitting the stores in the next few months. Plus, according to Stowers, consumers are being advised to follow some unusual shopping tips to reduce the temptation they feel to buy on impulse.

Stowers’ advice includes eating before shopping because “a full stomach makes you a pickier shopper” and limiting shopping to three hours because “shop till you drop leads to exhaustion and impulse-buying.” He also suggests avoiding the social politics of gift giving by not trying to “buy love, make up for time away from your spouse or compensate for being frugal the rest of the year.”

And, he says, “real friends and family will understand your financial limitations.”

According to Sam Goller, director of marketing at Stowers Innovations of Kansas City, his boss’s shopping advice is practical and necessary.

The National Retail Federation has predicted that consumers this year will spend 5.7 percent more on holiday gifts than they did last year. In Maine, consumers spent $1.27 billion on merchandise and other retail sales during the months of October, November and December last year. If the NRF is right, Mainers will spend $72 million more during the same three months this year compared to last.

For most consumers, the payment method of choice is credit cards, and the temptation is greater this season because millions of Americans paid off their credit-card debt by taking out home equity loans earlier this year. Now the credit cards are in their wallets calling out to them, saying, “Use me,” Goller said.

By answering the call, Americans are getting themselves deeper into debt, a hole that is virtually impossible to dig out of, he said.

“When you have a credit card in your wallet, it’s so easy to give in to temptation,” Goller said. “Credit card debt is not a way of life. It’s a choice. By using credit cards, people make a commitment to spend future dollars that they might not earn.”

Nationally, the average credit-card debt per household in 2002 was $8,378, or a total of $60 billion, according to Stowers. The average American household has six bank credit cards, eight retail credit cards and two debit cards.

Last year, women outspent men during the holidays, averaging $1,742 per household compared to $1,375.

In Maine, credit-card debt is on a par with the national figures, but Mainers have more difficulties paying their bills because per capita incomes are lower than most other states, according to Rick Dobson, president of Consumer Credit Counseling Services, a nonprofit education and debt-management company headquartered in Portland.

He called the problem “severe.”

According to figures compiled by CCCS, Mainers have on average $26,297 in installment debt, but only earn an average of $26,266 a year. The installment debt includes credit cards and auto loans, but not home equity loans or mortgages.

“People owe as much as they make in Maine,” Dobson said. “You don’t need the eight or 10 or 12 cards that people carry today.”

Stowers doesn’t want Americans to cut up every credit card today, but to save one for emergencies and to use it wisely. Dobson agrees that consumers need to be disciplined.

“Don’t abuse it,” he said.

About 600 families every week apply for financial management services offered by CCCS, Dobson said, and “more and more older consumers and seniors” are asking for help.

He said he encourages others to do the same. CCCS gives between 800 and 1,200 debt management education programs a year, and has educators available to help Mainers manage their money, Dobson said. Plus, the group has financial advice programs it offers for schools to teach money management to kids from kindergarten to college age.

“It’s going to take a generation to change” Mainers’ reliance on credit cards, Dobson said.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services can be reached at (800) 439-2227. Stowers has a free booklet titled “10 Proven Ideas That Could Improve Your Financial Position.” It’s available at (800) 234-3445.