Since the end of the recent recession, millions of consumers have been far more conscientious about trying to make all their credit card bill payments on time, and that trend continued into the month of March with a few exceptions.
Most of the nation's six largest credit card lenders saw instances of both late payments and accounts so far behind that they had to be written off as uncollectable drop once again in March, according to a report from Dow Jones Newswires. Those lenders - American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Citi, Discover Financial, and JPMorgan Chase - have enjoyed steadily declining rates of delinquency and default for more than a year and a half, and only two saw charge offs tick up last month. But even then, both increases were quite minor.
Capital One, for instance, saw its charge off rate increase to 3.85 percent from 3.84 percent, even as its delinquency rate - those accounts 30 days or more behind on payments - slipped once again to 3.25 percent from 3.62 percent, the report said. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase noted that its charge offs climbed slightly more, to 4.4 percent from 4.29 percent on a quarter-over-quarter basis, even as delinquency fell to 2.56 percent from 2.81 percent.
Some experts note that Capital One's accounts would be performing better were it not for the company's acquisition of HSBC's portfolio, which had numerous subprime cards, as well as store-branded accounts, which tend to encounter more delinquencies and defaults than traditional cards, the report said.
All other major lenders, however, saw both types of late payments improve or, at the very least, remain flat. American Express, which is the largest lender by spending in the U.S. and tends to have a more affluent clientele, continued to be the leader in these areas, as late payments accounted for just 1.3 percent of balances in March, down from 1.4 percent in February. Its charge off rate held steady at 2.4 percent, but was down significantly on a year-over-year basis.
But even as borrowers were more concerned with making sure their credit card bills were paid on time, lenders continued to keep their marketing efforts relatively repressed, the report said. The latest data from Mintel Comperemedia showed that though the 282 million new card offers sent out over the course of February was an increase of 6 percent over January's totals, it was down 25 percent on a year-over-year basis.
"Some issuers are cooling off following a sustained period of aggressive growth," Andrew Davidson, senior vice president with Mintel Comperemedia, told the news agency.
Despite repeated declines in consumer delinquency and default, some experts say that there has to be a logical end point at which these problematic accounts will bottom out and start to grow again, but it's currently unclear exactly how low these rates can go before climbing again.
