BofA Delinquent Credit Card Rate Creeps Up in August

Bank of America credit card metrics were mixed in August, with a slightly higher delinquency rate but better net charge-offs, a Seeking Alpha report said Thursday (Sept. 15).

The delinquency rate was up 0.3 percentage points from July, hitting 0.88% from 0.85%. But it was down slightly from last year’s 0.90%.

And the net charge-off rate was 1.24%, which was a decrease from 1.27% in July and 1.45% in August 2021.

See also: Rising Card Delinquency Rates Spotlight Paycheck-to-Paycheck Pressures

Delinquency rates have been inching up across the board, PYMNTS reported Monday (Sept. 12). Synchrony Bank reported that the percentage of loans at least 30 days past due, as a percentage of period end loan receivables, stood at 3.1% at the end of August, up from 2.3% last year and 2.9% at the end of July.

Elsewhere, Discover Financial Services reported that the delinquency rate, at 30 days or more, was 1.8% at the end of July, up from 1.4% last year.

And the St. Louis Fed has estimated that the delinquency rate on credit card loans held by all commercial banks was, at the end of the second quarter, 1.8%, up from 1.6%.

Bank of America Institute also issued a study recently saying that consumer spending was being pushed by exorbitant childcare costs, PYMNTS wrote.

Read more: BofA Report: Consumer Spending Spike Reflects Rising Childcare Costs

As parents have been going back to work, childcare costs have shot up to levels that haven’t been seen since before the pandemic started.

Overall U.S. consumer spending was up in August, but people have been feeling the effects of the rising costs of childcare as well as utilities, the BofA report said. Childcare payments were 94% of what they were before the pandemic, while utility payments were up 16%.

The utility payments rise has had a dampening effect on the relief customers could’ve had from slightly-reduced gas prices in the past few weeks – with heat waves as summer ends, utility bill increases might not be reflected in the current spikes, the report said, with more maybe coming in September.