A strong holiday shopping season appears to have led some Americans to delay extra debt payments in December, but despite an end-of-year slowdown all 50 states ended the year with less credit card debt than when the year began, according to a recent report issued by CreditKarma.com.

Credit card issuers quietly are testing a variety of new fees to help make up for other fee income wiped out last year when the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act went into effect, one analyst contends.

Releases of allowances for bad credit card loans continued to plump banks' bottom lines in recent earnings reports, but loss rates look set to bounce off record lows in the first quarter.

Target Corp., which has tried for years to sell its credit card assets, is giving up for now, and it is spending more than $2.8 billion to divorce itself from JPMorgan Chase & Co.

A comparison of credit card debt shows that consumers in all 50 states reduced their outstanding balances last year, with averages falling 11% to $6,576 in December compared to December 2010, according to CreditKarma.com, which on Tuesday released its U.S. Credit Score Climate Report.

Narrower loan spreads and lower average loan balances, partially reversed by lower revenue reversals associated with a reduction in net charge-offs, helped drive fourth-quarter reductions in both net revenue and net income for the Card Services & Auto unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co., the issuer announced Friday.

Credit card users have been unusually diligent in paying off their bills recently in the wake of the financial crisis. Their discipline slipped a bit late last year, however, which led revolving credit to post a surprise jump in November.

U.S. consumer borrowing surged 10% in November, its largest gain in a decade, and a positive sign for the fragile economy. The increase was the 13th in 14 months and the biggest jump since creditors boosted lending after the September 11 attacks.

The economy may be crawling back to normal in some sectors, but credit card industry revenue continues to fall, according to one longtime observer.

Consumers might be warming up a bit to using credit cards again after overindulging in card use during the recession, a new poll suggests.

How wide should credit card lenders open the gates to borrowers after slamming them shut during the recession when losses soared? It depends on their analytics.

Bank of America Corp. on Dec. 21 sold $700 million in credit card assets to U.S. Bancorp in the struggling Charlotte, N.C., company’s latest effort to slim down.

WASHINGTON – Key congressional backers of a 2009 law that strengthened consumer protections for credit card users are now concerned that the Federal Reserve Board has gone too far with regulations that could restrict credit to stay-at-home mothers.

Next year could be a “transition” year in which consumer deleveraging slows significantly and borrowing improves, spurring credit card market growth.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Wednesday unveiled a prototype for a simplified credit card agreement, the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at improving financial disclosures.

The trend of U.S. credit cardholders putting credit card payments ahead of mortgage payments that began in early 2008 shows no sign of abating in the immediate future even as the economy gradually improves, a team of TransUnion LLC analysts contends.

Credit cardholders have high satisfaction levels with their most frequently used cards mainly because they never have had problems with them, according to new research from Auriemma Consulting Group.

Consumer use of credit cards online is making a comeback, new research suggests.

Consumer credit card originations rose 32% during the first eight months of this year, though the amount of total new credit issued still lags behind pre-recession levels by a full 45%, recently released data show.

The U.S. is in a balance-sheet slowdown: overleveraged households are tightening their belts and holding back on consumption, thereby choking off the economy's main engine.