[mEDITate-OR:
wonder if the new, improved credit card rules actually are helping U.S..., help ourselves.
What some of these credit card numbers are telling U.S. is that while we may be improving our positions vis them, they are still in a world of economic hurt.
What they were doing to U.S. was gaming their system against U.S. to raise capitol to offset their RE loan losses. The new, proposed Fed consumer law will substantially reduce their ability to squeeze U.S. out of our money. That make their problems much worse, and different.
Since we did not cry for Argentina, or her...
we need not cry for these bank robbers either.
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Late payment drop shows impact of credit reforms
Before the law took effect, a bank could have raised a customer's interest rate without warning. That would have driven up the minimum payment due. Now, banks can't raise interest rates before giving customers 45 days notice, and can't hike rates on existing balances. The law also curbs over-the-limit fees and penalty fees, and mandates that payments above the minimum be applied to balances with the highest interest rate first.
These restrictions helped keep balances down, which in turn kept minimum payments lower
Minimum payments are usually a percentage of total balance.
To be sure, reining in rate hikes and excessive fees is not the only reason for the delinquency decline. Consumers have been working to reduce their debt as the effects of the recession linger and unemployment remains high. And many cardholders have taken to paying their credit card bills before even their mortgages, a flip from historical norms in the so-called payment hierarchy that reflects the importance of credit cards for managing household spending.
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April credit card data shows fewer late payments
Of the top six U.S. credit card issuers, only Bank of America posted higher charge-offs for April
— 12.71 percent versus 12.54 percent in March.
Citi took the No. 2 highest spot at 11.23 percent of total balances, though that improved from 11.55 percent in March.
TransUnion found the rate of borrowers who fell 90 days or more behind on their card payments dropped to 1.11 percent for the three months ended March 31.
That was down from 1.32 percent in the 2009 first quarter, and
1.21 percent in the final quarter of 2009
The rate hovered between .50 and .75 percent before the recession
Bank of America had the highest late payment rate at 6.73 percent of its total credit card loans,
but that was still less than the 7.07 percent a month earlier.
American Express had the lowest delinquency rate at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent in March.
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