Creditnet News Story

Average amount of credit card debt goes down in fourth quarter

Sunday, February 28, 2010

By Thomas Astery

TransUnion report shows that delinquencies did go up.

A recent report from TransUnion notes that though late payments on credit cards did increase in the fourth quarter, the average amount of debt people have went down.

The number of consumers who were more than 90 days late on a credit card account went up to 1.21 percent during the final quarter of 2009, which represents a 10 percent increase over the third quarter. However, the number of delinquencies on a year-to-year basis stayed steady.

The average amount of debt put on accounts made through credit card offers declined 3.18 percent from the third to fourth quarter. The average amount of debt people have on their credit cards was $5,434 during the fourth quarter, whereas the prior quarter posted an average total of $5,612.

"However, we do expect to see the increased balances due to holiday spending show up on credit files in the month of January," said Ezra Becker, director of consulting and strategy in TransUnion's financial services business unit.

The numbers from TransUnion resemble statistics put forward by the Federal Reserve Board. The Fed noted that revolving credit dropped at an annual rate of 13 percent in the last quarter of 2009.