Credit card delinquency rates fell again in February, and the most promising signs in the data released this week were further declines in early-stage delinquencies - loans that are 30 to 60 days past due.

Capital One Financial Corp. yesterday reported lower-than-expected charge-off and delinquency rates on its U.S. credit cards for February, prompting at least one securities firm to suggest credit card chargeoffs as a whole may begin to decline during the second quarter.

Discover Financial Services last week signaled to analysts it expects to report lower-than-expected earnings for its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31. Discover plans to report the quarter’s earnings on Tuesday.

The original goal of providing uniform protections for all consumer credit is getting lost to lawmakers' preoccupation over where to place a new regulator.

U.S. credit card chargeoffs rose again through January, reaching levels close to the peaks set last fall, according to data Fitch Group’s Fitch Ratings released last week.

Credit unions sold 22 credit card portfolios last year, and while the total number of deals was the same as the previous year, the total asset value of the portfolios sold more than tripled, according to consulting firm TRK Advisors.

Credit card portfolio sales, which dwindled sharply last year as the economy retracted, will remain stagnant for at least another year, one analyst says.

Fair Isaac Corp. said this week that the trend of consumers' defaulting on mortgages while continuing to pay their credit cards has spread to the most creditworthy borrowers.

Citing lower overall expenses, Target Corp. on Tuesday announced improved results for its credit card operations during its fiscal fourth quarter.

Credit card chargeoffs climbed sharply in January, though early-stage delinquencies declined for the third month in a row, Moody's Investors Service Inc. said Monday. William Black, a senior vice president at the rating agency, noted such delinquencies often rise at the start of the year, and this January was the first since 2004 that they fell from the previous month.

Several credit card issuers this month are taking more “positive, promotional” approaches to introducing new policies and billing-statement changes mandated by a federal law that goes into effect today, according to new research by Corporate Insight, a New York-based market-research firm.

Bank of America Corp. said this week that late payments on credit card loans fell to 7.35% in January, the lowest in a year.

Despite the dimming prospects for the creation of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Elizabeth Warren isn't ready to consider alternatives.

The Federal Reserve Board should use "common sense" when defining "reasonable and proportional" penalty fees under the new credit card law, Pew Charitable Trusts said this week. President Obama signed the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act last year. The law is taking effect in three phases, the second of which will begin next week.

Texas consumers wrote fewer checks for purchases in 2009 compared with the previous year, reaching instead for their debit or credit cards, according to survey results released by Swacha, a not-for-profit regional payments association.

Consumers continue to place a higher priority on making their credit card payments than their mortgage payments, affirming a trend that began with the recession, according to a new data TransUnion released this week.

Card fraud costs the U.S. payments industry, including issuers, merchants and acquirers, an estimated $8.6 billion per year, according to a report from Aite Group LLC, a Boston-based consulting firm.

Five of the six largest credit card lenders posted declines in U.S. card delinquencies in December, helping the overall rate fall to the lowest level since September, reports Moody's Investors Service.

Despite an industrywide improvement in chargeoffs evident in fourth-quarter results, many credit card executives are wary of declaring an end to the harshest cycle in decades, with several issuers forecasting higher loan losses this quarter and beyond.

American Express Co. reported a 198.3% increase in net income for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 30 compared with a year ago, thanks to improving credit quality among U.S. customers and higher spending both in international regions and on corporate cards.