Past-due credit cards on the rise

March 24, 2004

WASHINGTON -- The percentage of credit card payments that were past due shot up to a new record in the final quarter of last year, but delinquency rates for some other types of consumer loans dropped, painting a mixed picture of how Americans are handling their debt.

The seasonally adjusted percentage of credit card accounts 30 or more days past due rose to 4.43 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003, the American Bankers Association reported in a quarterly survey released Tuesday. That surpassed the previous all-time quarterly high of 4.09 percent set in the third quarter of last year.

In the latest employment report, there were some 8.2 million people unemployed in February, with the average duration of 20.3 weeks without work. That marked the highest average duration of joblessness in over 20 years.

-- The Associated Press