CHICAGO — Card holders continued to add to their overall card balances in the second quarter, but card delinquencies continued to drop according to one of the nation's big three credit bureaus.

TransUnion reported that credit card debt nationally rose 2.63% to $1,717, up from $1,673 and 8.6% up from the second quarter of 2007. The highest states for average credit card balances were Alaska ($2,494), Tennessee ($2,109) and Alabama ($2,015). The lowest card balances were in Iowa ($1281), North Dakota (1,318) and South Dakota ($1,388).

Credit card balances rose the fastest in the second quarter in Washington D.C., Alaska and Tennessee, TransUnion said. But as debt rose, the rate of growth in delinquencies continued to drop.

Nationally, the ratio of credit card borrowers delinquent on one or more of their credit cards declined to 1.04% in the second quarter of 2008, down 12.6% over the previous quarter, TransUnion reported.

But TransUnion reported that on a year over year basis, the national delinquency incidence rate has risen 14.3% from 0.91% in the second quarter of 2007. Delinquencies was highest in Nevada (1.72%), followed closely by Florida (1.34%) and Mississippi (1.30%).