The number of open credit cards, the share of cardholders with seriously delinquent accounts and the amount of debt are all on the rise, TransUnion finds
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Once again, TransUnion’s latest report on the U.S. credit card market finds continued upticks for a trio of metrics: the number of open credit cards, the share of cardholders whose accounts are seriously delinquent and the average balance among cardholders.
Total credit cards were up to 418.6 million at the end of 2017, representing a 3.5 percent increase over the 404.4 million cards that were open a year earlier. The trend since 2014 has been repeatedly up, with 2015 to 2016 seeing a hefty annual gain of 6.1 percent.
Delinquencies of 90 or more days also rose in 2017, up to 1.87 percent of accounts. That’s only a modest increase over 2016’s rate of 1.79 percent. But with 2014’s share pegged at 1.48 percent, the serious delinquency rate has risen almost four-tenths of a percentage point in three years.
Also climbing is the average credit card balance, reaching $5,644 per cardholder at the end of 2017. It’s the second year in a row that the average balance has grown 2.8 to 2.9 percent over the previous year.
One of the three major credit bureaus, TransUnion prepares its quarterly report of the credit card, auto loan and mortgage markets based on credit report data analyzed by Prama Analytics. Its <a href=”https://newsroom.transunion.com/consumer-credit-market-concludes-2017-on-a-high-note/” target=”_blank”><b>Q4 2017 Industry Insights Report</b></a> was released Feb. 20.
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TransUnion’s latest report on the U.S. credit card market finds continued upticks for a trio of metrics: the number of open credit cards, the share of cardholders whose accounts are seriously delinquent and the average balance among cardholders.
The total number of credit cards was up to 418.6 million at the end of 2017, representing a 3.5 percent increase over the 404.4 million cards that were open a year earlier. The trend since 2014 has been repeatedly up, with 2015 to 2016 seeing a hefty annual gain of 6.1 percent.
Delinquencies of 90 or more days also rose in 2017, up to 1.87 percent of accounts. That’s only a modest increase over 2016’s rate of 1.79 percent. But with 2014’s share pegged at 1.48 percent, the serious delinquency rate has risen almost four-tenths of a percentage point in three years.
Also climbing is the average credit card balance, reaching $5,644 per cardholder at the end of 2017. It’s the second year in a row that the average balance has grown 2.8 to 2.9 percent over the previous year.
TransUnion, one of the three major credit bureaus, prepares its quarterly report of the credit card, auto loan and mortgage markets based on credit report data analyzed by Prama Analytics. Its Q4 2017 Industry Insights Report was released Feb. 20.
The editorial content on this page is based solely on the objective assessment of our writers and is not driven by advertising dollars. It has not been provided or commissioned by the credit card issuers. However, we may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners.
Sabrina Karl
loves telling – and especially showing – stories that are conveyed with numbers. Whether it’s data on the nation’s credit card debt or the financial struggles faced by seniors, millennials, or anyone in between, Karl combines an analytical mindset with serious Excel chops and a dash of graphic design to create infographic stories for CreditCards.com, and previously for Bankrate.com, Interest.com and DepositAccounts.com.
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