Credit Card Debt Declines $5.4 Billion

CardTrak.com - News - March Debt

March Debt Fri, May 8, 2009 AddThis Social Bookmark Button
By Ashish Rajan, CardTrak.com

Consumer revolving credit, mostly credit card debt, continued its downward trend in March and revised figures now show six months of decline. Americans clipped $5.4 billion off total consumer revolving credit in March.

Lower credit limits and reduced personal income continue to contribute to the sluggish growth. Revolving credit now stands at $945.9 billion in March and declining at a 6.8% annual rate. In February, revolving credit dipped by a revised $9.7 billion reflecting an annual contraction ratio of 12.1%, according to new data released by the Federal Reserve.

Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the first quarter was about $805 billion or roughly 85% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). Store and gas credit cards had about $100 billion in outstandings at year-end 2008. At the end of March, Americans were $2551 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.

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