Consumer revolving credit grew again in January as Americans tacked on $5.6 billion in net new debt, mostly credit card debt, compared to the prior month. In December consumers added $2.2 billion. Revolving consumer credit has now reached a record $947.4 billion and is growing by 7.0% per annum. Based on revised figures, revolving debt rose 2.8% in December and 12.8% in November. According to data released by the Federal Reserve, total revolving credit has expanded by $76 billion over the past twelve months. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the fourth quarter was about $800 billion, roughly 85% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (“www.carddata.com”:www.carddata.com). Store and gas credit cards had about $109 billion in outstandings at year-end 2007. At the end of December, Americans were $2524 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Jan 08 Dec 07 Nov 07 Oct 07 Sep 07 Aug 07
GRWTH: 7.0% 2.8 12.8 8.7 6.0 10.6
$OWED: $947.4 941.8 939.6 921.8 922.1 917.6
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 3/7/08;
For complete historical data, visit CardData (www.carddata.com)
