Card Delinquencies Below Pre-COVID Levels

Credit card delinquencies among American consumers reportedly crept up slightly last month.

The average delinquency rate, which measures late payments, rose to 2.66% in July from 2.63% in June, Seeking Alpha reported Saturday (Aug. 16). That figure was down from 2.87% in July of last year and 2.68% in July 2019, before the COVID pandemic.

At the same time, the average net charge-off rate — debts considered uncollectable — dipped from 3.8% in June to 3.63% last month, and 4.09% in July 2024. That figure was higher than the pre-pandemic rate of 3.59% recorded in July 2019.

Outside of what the report called Bread Financial’s “outsized rates” — delinquencies of 5.7% and 5.8% in June and July, charge-offs moving from 7.8% to 7.6% — delinquencies still climbed while net charge-offs stayed lower for the remaining six companies monitored for the report: American Express, Capital One/Discover, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of American, Synchrony and Citigroup.

As covered here last month, banks have begun making it harder for lower-income consumers to get cards, raising their criteria for new cards rather than lowering them.

At the same time, subprime borrowers are 3.6 times more likely to show interest in getting a new credit card than people with the highest credit scores, PYMNTS reported last week.

And recent earnings from financial firms show that consumers, subprime ones included, are meeting their debt burdens, though there are signs that some are feeling pressure from ongoing inflation and a rocky macroeconomic landscape.

For example, Capital One CEO Richard Fairbank said that while the U.S. consumer “is in a great place,” there are “some pockets of consumers [that] are feeling pressure from the cumulative effects of inflation and higher interest rates. And we’re still seeing some delayed charge-off effects from the pandemic, although the improving trend in our delinquencies suggest these effects are moderating.”

Meanwhile, PYMNTS spoke last week with Concora Credit Chief Marketing Officer Jason Tinurelli, who argued that the credit industry’s approach to creditworthiness has been wrongheaded. With credit access portrayed in binary terms — approved or denied, prime or subprime — the system can alienate as much as it evaluates, he said.

“Customers can identify themselves before they walk in the door,” Tinurelli told PYMNTS. “What they really are looking for from you is some sort of hint that you have more options available for people with less-than-perfect credit.”