CHICAGO, IL–(Marketwire – November 29, 2010) – TransUnion’s quarterly analysis of trends in the credit card industry revealed that the national credit card delinquency rate (the ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their credit cards) decreased to 0.83 percent in the third quarter of 2010, down almost 9.8 percent over the previous quarter. Year over year, credit card delinquencies fell by 24.6 percent.
TransUnion’s analysis estimates that more than eight million consumers stopped actively using bank-issued, general purpose credit cards over the past year. This deleveraging is believed to be due in part to charge-offs in the higher risk segments of the population, more conservative spending in the low-risk segments, and significant efforts by consumers across the board to maintain the health of their credit card relationships as a financial cushion. Based upon income levels estimated by TransUnion’s income estimation model, consumers with higher incomes were just as likely as consumers with lower incomes to suspend their use of this payment option. Source: TransUnion
