Analytics

Signals are mounting that consumer credit card borrowing will begin to grow again this year after going into a decline at the start of the recession in fall 2008. But it will be at least a few more months until that trend is solid, according to economists at Moody’s Investors Service.

The number of U.S. credit card accounts rose slightly during last year’s fourth quarter, to 380 million accounts from 378 million the previous quarter, reversing a trend of declining accounts that had gone on since the second quarter of 2008, according to the New York Federal Reserve.

A sharp drop in the level of loan loss provisions helped the banking industry earn $21.7 billion in the fourth quarter, the second highest quarterly total in more than three years, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said Wednesday.

U.S. credit card delinquencies fell about 32% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, according to TransUnion LLC.

A report released by The Coalition of Religious Communities (CRC) in Utah says more than a third of small claims lawsuits in the state's justice system are related to payday loan collection.

Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc. posted record fourth-quarter revenue while profits soared nearly 70% from a year earlier, the debt buyer and collection agency announced Feb. 15.

Quarterly and yearly profits at Encore Capital Group Inc. beat market expectations, helped by a huge jump in gross collections, the debt buyer and collection agency reported Feb. 14.

With the law of supply and demand at work - more buyers chasing fewer deals - debt buyers continue to see portfolio prices remain stubbornly high, regardless of the age of the debt.

This story has been updated.

The Chicago credit bureau TransUnion LLC has introduced two scores designed to help debt collectors target consumers who are most likely to make payments.

U.S. consumers’ average credit score last month dropped two points to 667 from a year earlier, as average credit card debt fell by 9% to $7,200 during the same period, according to data Credit Karma released Feb. 10.

For the fourth consecutive quarter, TransUnion’s Credit Risk Index declined, indicating consumers were less of a credit risk in 2010 compared with the previous year, the Chicago-based credit bureau reports.

U.S. credit cardholders boosted their overall borrowing in December for the first time in more than two years, according to a Feb. 7 Federal Reserve G.19 report. But card issuers should not break out the champagne just yet, analysts say.

U.S. credit cardholders boosted their overall borrowing in December for the first time in more than two years, according to a Feb. 7 Federal Reserve G.19 report. But card issuers should not break out the champagne just yet, analysts say.

Consumers are attacking their debt and borrowing less, but the average U.S. borrower with debt from unsecured loans, including credit cards, still owes an average of $10,000 spread among an average of seven creditors, according to data CareOne Services Inc., a national for-profit consumer debt-relief firm, released Feb. 2.

Many risk managers across Europe expect an improvement in credit card and auto-loan performance in the next six months, with much less optimism for mortgage and small-business loans, recently released survey data suggest.

Most consumers in the United Kingdom have not changed their payment habits, but some say they will rely less on credit cards even if the economy improves, suggest recent survey data from New York-based Auriemma Consulting Group.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the financial-services watchdog agency Congress mandated last year as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, on Feb. 3 launched its website, laying the groundwork for soliciting consumer complaints about credit cards and other financial-services products.

Consumers are attacking their debt and borrowing less, but the average U.S. borrower with debt from unsecured loans, including credit cards, still owes an average of $10,000 spread among an average of seven creditors, according to data CareOne Services Inc., a national for-profit consumer debt-relief firm, released Feb. 2.

An estimated 426 different collection agencies and creditors were sued under consumer statutes in the first half of January, up from 392 in the second half of December but down from 510 in the fist half of December, according to data from U.S. district courts.