TransUnion: Card Debt, Delinquencies Rose in Fourth Quarter

Credit card debt and delinquencies were on the rise in the fourth quarter of 2007, according to a study from consumer credit information firm TransUnion. The average credit card debt per credit card user was $1,694 in the fourth quarter, a rise of nearly 5 percent from the third quarter, according to the TransUnion.com quarterly credit card analysis.

Steep increases in card debt were felt the most in Florida, Nevada and California, states that have been hit hard by the decline of the housing market. The average card debt rose in the fourth quarter in Florida by 6.84 percent; in Nevada by 5.98 percent; and in California by 5.95 percent.

Consumers are relying more on their credit cards in those states where there are a high numbers of resets of adjustable rate mortgages, according to TransUnion. 

More accounts are going delinquent, defined by TransUnion in this context as 90 days or more past due. The percentage of credit card accounts delinquent rose more than 32 percent in the fourth quarter to 1.36 percent of all card accounts nationwide. Nevada had the highest delinquency rate with 1.95 percent, while the District of Columbia saw its rate rise by nearly 49 percent quarter to quarter.

The delinquency rate will rise nationwide to 1.9 percent by year end, according to TransUnion.

TransUnion compiles the quarterly analysis by using the Trend Data database that contains 27 million anonymous consumer records randomly sampled every quarter.