Most Credit Card Issuers Report Further Declines in Defaults and Delinquencies

Default rates and delinquencies dropped once again in August for most of the major credit card issuers. Chase, Discover, American Express, and Bank of America all reported drops in both important figures in their August regulatory filings.

Credit cardholders and issuers have both made changes that brought an excessive system of credit card borrowing and lending back under control. Many of the borrowers who could not pay off their debt have already defaulted, while others have diligently paid down their balances and used other forms of payment to avoid the high interest rate penalties. Credit card issuers closed risky accounts, cut credit limits on millions of accounts, and tightened lending standards to cut their risk of defaults and late payments.

"Another decline in charge-offs and late payments shows that issuers and borrowers are still conservative with lending and borrowing, even with interest rates at historic lows" says Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com. "This is creating a healthier lending environment, but borrowing, lending, and spending provide the energy that runs our economy. The economy is stalled without them."

Charge-offs and late payments peaked in the summer of 2010 and have dropped steadily since then. Late payments and default payments are declining at a time when credit card balances are dropping. According to the latest Federal Reserve Consumer Credit Report, revolving credit, which is made up primarily of credit card debt, dropped $3.4 billion to $792.5 billion in July. This represents an annual decline of 5.2 percent. This follows increases in both May (4.6 percent) and June (3.9 percent). Revolving debt

decreased for 27 consecutive months between September 2008 and November 2010.

Here are the default and delinquency rates for the major issuers:

Discover

The charge-off rate in August was 3.6 percent of balances on an annualized basis, down from 3.83 percent in July. Late payments were 2.49 percent in August, down from 2.6 percent in July.

Bank of America

The charge-off rate in August dropped to 6.79 percent of annualized balances, down from 7.43 percent in July. Late payments fell to

3.96 percent of balances in August, from 4.05 percent the prior month.

Chase

Chase charged off 4.67 percent of credit card balances on an annualized basis last month, down from 4.78 percent in July. Late

payments were 2.48 percent of balances in August, down from 2.52 percent in July.

Citi

The charge-off rate rose to 6.92 percent of balances on an annualized basis in August, up from 6.64 percent in July. Late payments dropped to 3.35 percent in August, from 3.39 percent in July.

Capital One

The annualized charge-off rate rose to 4.10 percent in August, up from 3.77 percent in July. Late payments rose for the third straight month to 3.43 percent in August, up from up from 3.37 percent in July.

American Express

The annualized charge-off rate fell to 2.7 percent in August from 2.8 percent in July. Late payments were 1.4 percent in August, down from 1.5 percent in July.



LowCards.com ( http://www.lowcards.com) is a free, independent website that helps consumers easily compare credit cards in a variety of categories such as lowest rates, rewards, rebates, balance transfers and lowest introductory rates. It also gives an unbiased ranking and review for each card. The LowCards.com Complete Credit Card Index