When the credit card company says no, the "bank of family" just might say yes.

Given a choice between maxing out a limit on a credit card or taking a loan from a family member, lower-income households and people of color are more likely to turn to relatives, according to a CNBC Invest in You and Acorns Savings Survey.

Among participants with household income below $50,000, more than half said they would ask to borrow from a family member.

Further, 51 percent of black participants who took the survey said they would ask a relative for a loan, while nearly 6 in 10 Hispanic respondents said they would prefer to turn to family.

The survey was conducted for CNBC by SurveyMonkey in March among a national sample of more than 2,300 adults.

White participants and higher-income households were more inclined to max out their cards. More than half of the people in both cohorts said they would prefer plastic to borrowing from relatives.

Perhaps the biggest upside of taking a loan from family is the fact that costs tend to be lower. The average interest rate on a credit card is now 17.67 percent, according to CreditCards.com.

"Going to a family member might be a knee-jerk reaction," said Louis Barajas, a certified financial planner at Wealth Management LAB in Los Angeles. "They won't charge any interest."

But these loans can also carry risk for lenders and borrowers.

"The person who's funding the loan is making a financial decision based on emotion," Barajas said. "'It's my daughter, it's my niece.'"

Here's how to navigate a family loan without hurting yourself and your relatives.