Credit card debt rises to nearly $5,000 per borrower

Borrowing on credit cards is up 4.9 percent from a year ago, TransUnion reports.

|
David Goldman/AP/File
In this July 18, 2012 file photo, credit card logos are seen on a downtown storefront as a pedestrian passes in Atlanta. Americans cranked up their use of credit cards in the third quarter of 2012, racking up more debt than a year ago, while also being less diligent about making payments on time, an analysis of consumer-credit data shows.

Americans' credit card debt is rising again and they're not as diligent about paying on time, signs perhaps that credit trends are returning to normal.

The average credit card debt per American borrower increased to $4,996, up 4.9 percent in the third quarter from the year before, according to a report released yesterday from TransUnion, a credit reporting agency. The pattern fits 2011, when debt fell in the first two quarters and rose in the last two.

Late payments at least 90 days overdue also slightly increased to 0.75 percent during the July-September period, up from 0.71 percent in the third quarter of 2011. The late payment rate was 0.63 percent in the second quarter of 2012. But the late payment rate is rising from historically low levels.

TransUnion reported 36 states had increases in their credit card delinquency rates from a year ago while nine other states and the District of Columbia posted decreases. There were no changes in five states.

Average credit card debt is likely to climb again in the fourth quarter as consumers use credit cards to pay for holiday shopping.

The increase in credit card debt may reinforce the latest research from the Federal Reserve that shows bankers have eased up slightly on lending standards and demand is increasing for credit cards. During the past three months, 17 percent of all banks and 26 percent of large banks reported a moderately stronger demand for credit card loans, according to the Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Survey. In addition, nearly 17 percent of large banks eased the credit standards for applying for a credit card.

– Bill Hardekopf is founder of Lowcards.com, an online credit-card information site.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Credit card debt rises to nearly $5,000 per borrower
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/new-economy/2012/1121/Credit-card-debt-rises-to-nearly-5-000-per-borrower
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe