Credit Card Delinquencies Continue to Rise—Who Is Missing Payments?

Haughwout, Andrew F.; Lee, Donghoon; Mangrum, Daniel; Rodriguez, Belicia; Scally, Joelle; Van der Klaauw, Wilbert; Wang, Crystal

Discussion Paper

Credit Card Delinquencies Continue to Rise—Who Is Missing Payments?

Abstract: This morning, the New York Fed’s Center for Microeconomic Data released the 2023:Q3 Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit. After only moderate growth in the second quarter, total household debt balances grew $228 billion in the third quarter across all types, especially credit cards and student loans. Credit card balances grew $48 billion this quarter and marked the eighth quarter of consecutive year-over year increases. The $154 billion nominal year-over-year increase in credit card balances marks the largest such increase since the beginning of our time series in 1999. The increase in balances is consistent with strong nominal spending and real GDP growth over the same time frame. But credit card delinquencies continue to rise from their historical lows seen during the pandemic and have now surpassed pre-pandemic levels. In this post, we focus on which groups have fallen behind on debt payments and discuss whether rising delinquencies are narrowly concentrated or broad based.

Keywords: household finance; Consumer Credit Panel (CCP);

JEL Classification: D14;