Rise In Delinquencies Shows Continued Debt Struggles
While delinquency rates on credit cards and home mortgage payments have dropped slightly on a monthly basis in recent reports, the overall picture remains largely unchanged.
In the American Bankers Association said in its recently released Consumer Credit Delinquency Bulletin that delinquencies rose in eight loan categories during the third quarter of 2010.
Overall, late payments to lenders in the three months preceding September 30 rose 1 percentage point to 3.01 percent, Bloomberg reports. Despite this slight increase, larger ones were found on home equity-loans and credit cards, a trend the organization says is tied closely to employment.
"Consumer-credit delinquencies are very much tied to what happens with jobs and what happens with income, and both of those stumbled in the third quarter," James Chessen, the ABA’s chief economist, told the news source.
Home-equity loan delinquencies rose to 4.05 percent during this time, up from 3.97 percent in the second quarter. Late payments to credit card lenders also rose from 3.62 to 3.64 percent.
The report signals that consumers may still be suffering from prolonged unemployment or underemployment and are now unable to make basic monthly payments in a timely fashion.