Moody's Reports Weakest Card-Debt Performance Since 2005

The latest Moody's Investors Services report on the performance of credit card debt provides a roundup of gloomy spring news. In April, card-loan performance deteriorated in four of the five categories Moody's Credit Card Indices track. The indices cover more than $445 billion in U.S. bank credit card loans that back the securities Moody's rates. Annualized credit card charge-off rates in April were 6.27% of outstanding loans, up 150 basis points from 4.77% in April 2007 and the highest charge-off rate since December 2005 when charge-offs spiked before changes in personal bankruptcy laws. The delinquency rate in April was 4.5%, up 80 basis points from 3.7% the same time last year. Cardholders paid back 17.49% of their card debts in April, about 114 basis points less than the 18.63% of balances they repaid the same time last year. The yield on card loans (the annualized percentage of income, mostly finance charges and fees, collected during the month as a percent of total loans) fell in April to 18.14% from 18.64% a year earlier.