Consumers paid down some of their holiday credit card debt in January, as usual, but balances at Jan. 31 were still higher than a year ago, with credit unions moving up to a slightly higher share.

The Federal Reserve's Consumer Credit Report released Wednesday showed the nation's overall card debt remained just over $1 trillion in January, up 6.3% from a year earlier.

Credit unions held $57.4 billion in credit card debt, up 9.3% from a year earlier. The change was -0.95% from December 2017 to January 2018 and -1% from December 2016 to January 2017.

Credit unions' share was 5.7% in January 2018, compared with 5.63% in December 2017 and 5.54% in January 2017.

The declines from December to January were about 1% for credit unions and 2.2% for all lenders. Both declines were slightly smaller than a year ago.

Banks remained the credit card kings. They held $887.4 billion in credit card debt, up 7.9% from a year earlier. Their share was 88.2% of card debt as of Jan. 31, up from 86.7% a year earlier.

NCUA data released this week showed the 10 largest holders of credit card debt held 38% of the all credit card debt held by the nation's 5,652 federally insured credit unions as of Dec. 31, up from 36% a year earlier.

The top 10 increased their card debt twice as fast as others, rising 15.2% to $21.9 billion. The other credit unions increased their card debt 6.8% to $36.1 billion.

The members of the top 10 are the same as a year ago. The only change was Digital Federal Credit Union of Boston moved up to No. 8 in 2017 from No. 9 in 2016. America First Federal Credit Union of Riverdale, Utah moved down a notch. The Top 10 are:

Navy Federal Credit Union, Vienna, Va. ($90.6 billion in assets, 7.5 million members) held $1.5 billion in credit card debt Dec. 31, up 19.1% from a year earlier.
Pentagon Federal Credit Union, Tysons Corner, Va. ($22.9 billion in assets, 1.6 million members) held $1.7 billion, up 2.9%.
BECU, Seattle ($17.9 billion in assets, 1.1 million members) held $1.1 billion, up 11.2%.
State Employees' Credit Union, Raleigh, N.C. ($37.3 billion in assets, 2.3 million members) held $760.7 million, up 11.2%.
SchoolsFirst Credit Union, Santa Ana, Calif. ($14.1 billion in assets, 793,592 members) held $730.6 million, up 9.9%.
Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union, Harrisburg, Pa. ($5.1 billion in assets, 441,856 members) held $697.1 million, up 8.4%.
Suncoast Credit Union, Tampa, Fla. ($8.7 billion in assets, 747,403 members) held $623.6 million, up 11.6%.
Digital ($8.3 billion in assets, 711,139 members) held $531.6 million, up 11.3%.
America First ($9.2 billion in assets, 905,161 members) held $501.7 million, up 4.5%.
The Golden 1 Credit Union, Sacramento, Calif. ($11.5 billion in assets, 921,901 members) held $446.4 million, up 5.8%.

Credit card debt that was at least 60 days delinquent was $744.4 million as of Dec. 31, or 1.29% of total card debt, up eight basis points from September and 15 basis points from December 2016.

The Fed's G-19 report also showed credit unions held $371.7 billion in non-revolving debt on January 2018, up 12% from a year earlier. About 93% of that debt is auto loans. Credit unions' share of non-revolving loans was 13.1% in January 2018, compared with 12.3% in January 2017.

Instant Insights /

CUs Gain Bigger Share of Post-Holiday Card Debt

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