Discussion Paper

Delinquency Is Increasingly in the Cards for Maxed‑Out Borrowers


Abstract: This morning, the New York Fed’s Center for Microeconomic Data released the Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit for the first quarter of 2024. Household debt balances grew by $184 billion over the previous quarter, slightly less than the moderate growth seen in the fourth quarter of 2023. Housing debt balances grew by $206 billion. Auto loans saw a $9 billion increase, continuing their steady growth since the second quarter of 2020, while balances on other non-housing debts fell. Credit card balances fell by $14 billion, which is typical for the first quarter. However, an increasing number of borrowers are behind on credit card payments. In this post, we explore the relationship between credit card delinquency and changes in credit card “utilization rates.”

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

JEL Classification: D12;

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File(s): File format is application/vnd.ms-excel https://newyorkfed.org/medialibrary/media/research/blog/2024/LSE_2024-Scally-Utilization_data
Description: Chart data

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Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Part of Series: Liberty Street Economics

Publication Date: 2024-05-14

Number: 20240514

Note: Editor’s note: Since this post was first published, the aggregate credit card utilization rate cited in the second paragraph has been corrected. (May 14, 12:05pm)