Information from the largest card issuers suggests that more Americans are moving from economic stress to greater prosperity.
In filings with regulators, Bank of America, Capitol One, Discover and American Express all said their card delinquency rates have been dropping. Bank of America said its rate fell from 7.23% to 7.07% as of the end of March. Capitol One's rate fell from 5.51% to 5.3%, Discover's from 5.5% to 5.39% and American Express' from 3.6% to 3.3%.
But the filings also showed that the volume of card balances being charged off remained high for all the card brands.
According to media sources, the charge-off rate on credit card loans spiked across the industry in the third quarter of last year, hitting a record 10.1%, according to data from the Federal Reserve. The Fed reported that in 2009, banks wrote off a record $83.27 billion in credit card debt.
