The story of credit unions slogging slowly upward with credit cards continued along its pleasing, if boring, path in January, as balances rose at a pace just ahead of inflation.

Meanwhile, banks provided a jerk to the story. Their balances had been falling for the past 12 months at a 1% to 3% pace compared to a year earlier. But in December their balance jumped to a pace that nearly caught up with credit unions.

The Fed's G-19 Consumer Credit Report showed that credit unions held $88.2 billion in credit card debt Dec. 31, up 3% from a year earlier. The change 1.5% gain from November was weaker than the 10-year average November-to-December gain of 2.2%.

Meanwhile, banks held $1.2 trillion in credit card debt, up 2.6% from a year earlier and up 2.7% from November, slightly stronger than their 10-year average gain of 2.2% for those months.

The gain by banks ended a string of 12-month declines that began in December 2024.

January's balance advances also jostled the longer saga of credit unions becoming a larger, if still tiny, player in credit cards.

Credit unions' share was 6.6% in January, unchanged from a year earlier but down from 6.7% in November. Banks' share was 92.1% in December, up from 92.0% both a year earlier and in November.

Finance companies held $16.3 billion in credit card debt, down 10.9% from a year earlier, but up 1.5% from November, compared with the 10-year average drop of 5.7% for the month.

NCUA data drawn from Callahan's Peer Suite showed credit card delinquencies were 2.15% in December, unchanged from year earlier and up from 2.03% in September. The net charge-off rate for credit cards was about 5.1% in the three months ending Dec. 31, down from 5.4% a year earlier and up from 4.7% in the third quarter.

The 10 credit unions with the largest credit card balances held $44.0 billion Dec. 31 with an average balance of $5,361, a 60-day-plus delinquency rate of 2.63% and a use rate of 34%.

All others with cards ($1.86 trillion in assets, 107 million members) held $44.1 billion in credit card balances as of Sept. 30, with an average balance of $2,498, a delinquency rate of 1.67% and a use rate of 25%.

The Top 10 for credit cards on Dec. 31 were:

  1. Navy Federal of Vienna, Va., just outside Washington, D.C. ($197.2 billion in assets, 15.1 million members) held $33 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $6,573, a delinquency rate of 2.76% and a use rate of 37%.
  2. PenFed of McLean, Va., just outside Washington, D.C. ($29.3 billion in assets, 2.7 million members) held $1.8 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $2,410, a delinquency rate of 3.01% and a use rate of 20%.
  3. BECU of Tukwila, Wash., in the Seattle area ($29.4 billion in assets, 1.5 million members) held $1.7 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $4,535, a delinquency rate of 1.6% and a use rate of 24%.
  4. SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union of Santa Ana, Calif. ($35.4 billion in assets, 1.5 million members) held $1.5 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $3,821, a delinquency rate of 2.75% and a use rate of 31%.
  5. State Employees' Credit Union of Raleigh, N.C. ($58.2 billion in assets, three million members) held $1.3 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $3,594, a delinquency rate of 1.34% and a use rate of 32%.
  6. Mountain America Federal Credit Union of Sandy, Utah ($21.9 billion in assets, 1.4 million members) held $1.1 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $2,441, a delinquency rate of 2.47% and a use rate of 31%.
  7. Suncoast Credit Union of Tampa, Fla. ($19.7 billion in assets, 1.4 million members) held $1.1 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $3,885, a delinquency rate of 3.06% and a use rate of 31%.
  8. America First Federal Credit Union of Riverdale, Utah ($23.8 billion in assets, 1.5 million members) held $1 billion in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $3,743, a delinquency rate of 1.57% and a use rate of 26%.
  9. Pennsylvania State Employees Credit Union of Harrisburg, Pa. ($9.3 billion in assets, 544,889 members) held $807 million in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $5,345, a delinquency rate of 1.26% and a use rate of 29%.
  10. Golden 1 Credit Union of Sacramento, Calif. ($21.5 billion in assets, 1.2 million members) held $764 million in credit card balances Dec. 31 with an average balance of $4,308, a delinquency rate of 2.72% and a use rate of 27%.

Each quarter, the G-19 includes an estimate of the U.S. auto loan balance. The report showed it ended the year at $1.56 trillion, down 0.2% from a year ago and up 0.1% from September.

Fourth-quarter numbers from Callahan's Peer Suite now cover 99.4% the movement's assets, which indicates the U.S. auto loan balance was basically unchanged from a year ago and still accounted for about 31% of the U.S. total.

Contact Jim DuPlessis at Jim.DuPlessis@arc-network.com.

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