Credit Card Debt Likely To Drop In 2011
In recent months, consumers have been making great strides to reduce the amount of money they owe to their lenders, paying down credit card debt, mortgage loans and other outstanding bills.
Now, these trends have led one industry agency to predict Americans will make significant debt reductions in 2011.
TransUnion, a leading data analysis firm, predicts that consumers will cut credit card delinquencies - debts owed to lenders for more than than 90 days - by nearly 10 percent in 2011.
"Seasonality aside, the percentage of bank card borrowers delinquent on one or more bank-issued, general-purpose credit cards is expected to continue to decline generally through 2011, reaching levels not seen in more than a decade," said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting at TransUnion's financial services business unit.
If the numbers hold up through the year, the number of delinquencies would drop from its current level of 0.75 percent to 0.67 percent. In its analysis, TransUnion cited the Credit CARD Act, a consumer shift away from credit cards and Americans' increased focus on timely bill payments as reasons for the strong predictions.