US credit card issuers continued to report record high charge-offs in March, despite signs that the US economy is in recovery mode.
Capital One and Chase reported that charge offs – the writedown of uncollected credit card debt by lenders – rose by 68 basis points and 30 basis points to 10.87 percent and 9.51 percent respectively while charge-offs edged up by 10 basis points to 7.5 percent at American Express (Amex).
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At Bank of America, charge-offs fell to 12.54 per cent in March from 13.51 per cent in February while Discover also reported an improved result, down from 9.11 percent to 8.51 percent.
Citigroup was the only major card issuer to report an increase in both charge-offs and 30 day delinquencies. Charge-offs rose from 11.29 percent in February to 11.55 percent with 30 day delinquencies up by 12 basis points to 6.06 percent.
Data from other major US card issuers for 30 day delinquencies was however generally positive.
Amex said that the number of US borrowers at least 30 days late in making repayments fell from 3.6 percent in February to 3.3 percent in March.
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By GlobalDataDiscovers 30-day delinquency rate also fell to 5.39 percent in March from 5.50 percent in February while Chase reported a 53 basis point improvement to 4.99 percent at the end of March.
US credit card issuers wrote off a record $83.3 billion in credit card debt in fiscal 2009.
In another sign that the US economy has turned the corner, consumer spending rose by 1.6 percent in March, ahead of analyst forecasts.
