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.
Accounts were nearing 500 million in the first quarter of 2008, but the total had been dropping dramatically until last quarter.
The New York Fed declined to comment on its data, but one market analyst the fourth-quarter data do not necessarily represent the start of a new trend.
“These are pretty interesting numbers,” says Susan Menke, vice president and behavioral economist at Mintel Comperemedia, which tracks credit card marketing and related economics. “You see that number of credit card accounts has dropped over the last couple of years to where it was a decade ago, but the slight increase in open accounts in Q4 from 378 million to only 380 million really just amounts to a leveling off in the decline,” she says.
The fourth-quarter rise in accounts does not necessarily signify the start of an upward trend. “I would wait until we see some more numbers to declare that the decline is really over,” Menke says.
But the fourth-quarter numbers are so low by historical levels that it seems as though they have nowhere to go but up, she says.
“Our consumer survey data are showing the same mixed sentiments about spending,” says Menke. “I think people are cautiously starting to spend again but are still focusing on paying off debt, particularly certain age groups such as the younger Baby Boomers.”
