A number of analysts and credit card issuers are reporting a drop in credit card delinquency in February, 2013. Capital One reports that their 30-day delinquency rate for US cards dropped .04 percent to 3.68 percent in February (via Fox Business).
Meanwhile, the ratings agency Fitch Ratings reports that the delinquency rate on retail credit card accounts fell to 1.61 percent in February, the lowest it's been since 1991 (courtesy of LowCards.com).
And yet, the news hasn't been ALL good this month; the credit reporting agency TransUnion reported a rise in delinquencies in Q4 of 2012 compared to the same quarter in 2011. That said, overall credit card debt was down from 2011 and both statistics were below all-time averages.
So ... what do we make of all these numbers?
Well, a rise in debt and delinquency is pretty common in Q4 because of the holidays, and the totals weren't overly bad according to TransUnion (up .07% from 2011). And as the Christian Science Monitor reported last week, the 1.61 percent figure is a full 65 percent (!!) below the highest levels of delinquency, which were recorded in Q4 of 2009.
The fact of the matter is that the average consumer is making paying their credit card bill on-time a real priority. They're still carrying a high average balance ($5,122 in Q4 according to TransUnion), but there's certainly some optimism to be found in this month's numbers.
