Credit Card Delinquency And Paying Down Personal Debt

Here’s an interesting piece from AP Business Writer Eileen AJ Connelly, focusing on credit card delinquency and debt:

Karen Bleier / AFP/Getty Images

Credit card delinquency rates are down, but it's a mixed bag when you take consumer debt into account.

“The national credit card delinquency rate, or rate of payments 90 days or more past due, fell to 0.60 percent in the second quarter, down from 0.92 percent a year ago. That’s the lowest rate since 1994, according to credit reporting agency TransUnion.

Delinquencies were expected to drop, but the improvement in that April to June period was faster than forecast.”

As for the cause of this rapid improvement, the piece cites people carrying fewer credit cards, banks maintaining stricter standards on credit card approval, and lower credit limits.  Even though this is good news, however, the country’s consumer debt situation still isn’t great,

“TransUnion also saw higher card use, reflected in a slight uptick in the amount of debt card users carried during the quarter. The average combined total debt for all major credit cards increased by $20 from the first three months of the year, to $4,699 per borrower. Even so, that amount is down more than 5 percent from the $4,951 average in the second quarter of 2010, and is 16 percent lower than the peak average debt of $5,575 in the first quarter of 2009.”