Seems like every week there's a report about how Americans are starting to get ahold of their credit problems and start really taking control of their financial destiny. This week is no different.
According to an Experian analysis of bank card trends, brand new credit card accounts sprung up 21 percent in Quarter 2 over last year's Quarter 2 numbers. This has also led to a $12 billion increase in credit limits handed out.
"Bank card originations continue to track with the recovery in terms of steady growth," said Linda Haran, senior director of product management and strategy for Experian Decision Analytics in an Experian press release. "While we may never hit the volumes we saw in 2007, the consistent growth rates that we are currently seeing in bank card originations signal that the market is coming back online."
This is obviously great news for the credit card companies, but it's only good news if Americans are using these billions of dollars in new credit responsibly...and they are.
“Equally important is that prime and near-prime bank card utilization rates are not as high as they were a year ago,” said Haran. “This is a positive trend, because it shows that despite an increase in new bank card users, consumers are managing their credit wisely.”
So each week we're getting news of Americans using credit and using responsibly, which seems to paint a picture of a people learning their lessons the hard way after the recent recession. With delinquencies down to a historic low of 0.9 percent this quarter, the economy slowly but surely seems to be recovering.
