Credit Card Delinquency Rate Falls

TransUnion’s quarterly analysis of trends in the credit card industry shows that the national credit card delinquency rate decreased to 0.74 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

Delinquency rate is the ratio of bankcard borrowers 90 days or more delinquent on one or more of their bank-issued credit cards.

This delinquency rate is down almost 10 percent quarter over quarter (0.82 percent 4Q10) and down nearly 33 percent year over year (1.11 percent 1Q10). This is the lowest level reached since the third quarter of 1996 (0.76 percent).

In the first quarter of 2011, the average credit card debt per borrower (defined as the aggregate balance on all bank-issued credit cards for an individual bankcard borrower) fell by 5.8 percent to $4,679 from the previous quarter’s average of $4,965. This is the lowest average since the third quarter of 2000 ($4,695) and is markedly lower than the peak experienced during the recession ($5,776 1Q 2009).