America’s appetite for credit card debt returned during July after a one month decline. Consumers added a mere $300 million to total revolving debt during July, compared to a $1.9 billion increase one year ago. The July figures, released this week by the Federal Reserve, also reverses the one month decline posted in June during which consumers reduced total revolving debt by a revised $1.3 billion, the first such decline in 2003. According to preliminary figures released by the Federal Reserve, American consumers were $1.774 trillion in debt, exclusive of home mortgages during July. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the first quarter was $645.6 billion, or roughly 90% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com).
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Jul 03 Jun03 May 03 Apr 03 Mar 03 Feb 03 Jan 03
GRWTH: 0.5% -2.1 7.7 3.4 4.1 5.9 5.2
$OWED: $726.9 726.6 727.9 722.8 720.7 718.6 715.5
Dec 02 Nov 02 Oct 02 Sep 02 Aug 02 Jul 02 Jun 02
GRWTH: -6.7% -1.4 1.6 3.0 6.2 6.0 4.1
$OWED: $712.4 716.8 717.9 721.3 719.5 715.6 712.1
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 09/08/03;
For complete historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com).
