Washington ? More consumers plan to cut back on spending than increase it during this year’s holiday season.

Rising worry about credit card and installment debt, especially among minorities and low-income people, may help explain the restrained spending plans, the Consumer Federation of America and the Credit Union National Assn. said Monday in their third annual survey of predicted holiday spending.

The survey marked the third consecutive year that a greater number of Americans, 21 percent, planned to decrease holiday spending than to increase it (15 percent), the groups said.

Three in five of those responding, or 61 percent, said they intended to spend about the same as last year.

All three surveys have been conducted during times of economic weakness.

Still, consumers appeared less cautious overall than a year ago. The previous survey, conducted less than two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, found a higher percentage of Americans planning to cut back, 28 percent, and a slightly smaller percentage of those planning to spend more, 13 percent.

The results indicate “that consumers are not in a spending mood,” said Bill Hampel, chief economist of the credit union group. He said the survey suggested that the holiday spending season, “although not robust, will not be as weak as some might have expected.”

In the new survey of some 1,000 adults taken Nov. 7-10, the percentage of consumers worried about their ability to pay off debts other than mortgages rose to 46 percent from 39 percent last year. Fifty-five percent of black respondents and 48 percent of respondents with annual incomes below $25,000 said they were very concerned about making the debt payments.

Americans carry some $1.7 trillion in consumer debt, including $700 billion in credit card debt, according to the groups.

They advise consumers to draw up a budget for holiday spending, make a price list of gifts and other desired holiday items, comparison shop, pay off debts as quickly as possible and plan for next year by opening a Christmas Club account.