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The U.S. credit card charge-off rate rose to 6.82% of overall card receivables in August, up from 4.61% during the same period a year ago. The increase marks the 20th consecutive month of year-over-year rate increases, according to Moody's Credit Card Credit Indices, which track more than $435 billion of U.S. bank credit card loans backing securities Moody's rates. The charge-off rate, which increased significantly from 6.36% in July, measures credit card account balances written off as uncollectible as an annualized percent of total loans outstanding. The August delinquency rate, which measures the proportion of account balances for which a monthly payment is more than 30 days late, rose to 4.6% from 3.8% a year ago, according to the indices. Cardholders paid back 17.4% of their credit card debts in August compared with 20.1% during the corresponding month a year ago. The drop in August marks the 13th consecutive month of year-over-year decreases in paid back credit card debt.
