Average Credit Card Debt Down to 8-Year Low: Below $5,000

Credit card delinquencies – payments overdue at least 90 days – fell again in the second quarter of 2010 – and the average individual card debt fell below $5,000 for the first time since 2002.

Mortgage Delinquencies Still High at 6.67% in Q2: TransUnion

Mortgage delinquencies – borrowers 60 or more days past due – posted a 14.8 percent increase in the second quarter of 2010 compared to the same quarter last year, according to credit reporting bureau TransUnion. The national mortgage delinquency rate was 6.67 percent — a level marginally lower than the 6.77 percent rate reported for the first quarter of this year.

FTC Rule Bans Upfront Fees on Some Debt Relief Services

A new telemarketing sales rule prohibits for-profit companies that sell debt relief services over the telephone from charging an upfront free, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Starting Oct. 27, these companies must settle or reduce a customers’ credit card or other unsecured debit before collecting a fee.

Citigroup 2Q Earnings Down 37%; Trading Revenue Declines

Hurt by a big drop in trading revenue, Citigroup reported a 37 percent slide in second-quarter profit to $2.7 billion, or 9 cents a share, compared to $4.28 billion, or 49 cents, a year ago. Results topped Wall Street expectations of 5 cents a share, but a murky outlook pushed shares lower Friday for Citigroup, the No. 3 U.S. bank by assets.

Bank of America 2Q Profit Slips; But Credit Losses Declining

Lower costs to cover bad loans helped Bank of America beat estimates with second quarter net income of $3.12 billion, or 33 cents a share, down slightly from $3.22 billion reported a year ago. But future uncertainty pushed financial stocks downward today as Bank of America, the largest U.S. bank ranked by assets, faces uncertainty in months ahead as Wall Street oversight reform takes hold.

Bank Credit Card Delinquencies Fall to 2002 Level, ABA Says

Bank-issued credit card delinquencies dipped slightly in the first quarter of 2010 – the first time such late payments have fallen below 4 percent since the second quarter of 2002, according to the American Bankers Association.

U.S. Consumer Bankruptcies Up 14% in First Half of 2010

U.S. consumer bankruptcy filings totaled 770,117 in the first six months of 2010 – a 14 percent increase over the 675,351 filings from the same period a year ago. The consumer filings for January-June of this year mark the highest total since 2005, when Congress enacted the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act in an attempt to slow down the rate of filings

Credit Card Late Payments Fewer, But Charge-Offs Rising: Fitch

Credit card late payments slipped in May to 4.18 percent from 4.27 percent in April, marking the fourth straight month of fewer consumers making late payments of 60 days or more, according to the latest Fitch Ratings index. So-called early stage delinquencies – those late 30 days or more – slid to 5.53 percent from 5.74 percent in April.

Auto Loan Delinquencies Keep Slowing Down: TransUnion

The auto loan delinquency rate – at least 60 days overdue – continued to slide in the first quarter of 2010, down to 0.66 percent, according to the credit reporting agency TransUnion. The delinquency rate fell 18.52 percent from the fourth quarter of 2009, and 20.48 percent from the first quarter of 2009.

Badly Overdue Mortgages, Foreclosures Stay at Record Highs

Borrowers seriously delinquent on their mortgages – those at least 90 days late – and those in foreclosure continued at historically high percentages in the first quarter of 2010, while shorter-term delinquencies showed a possible plateau – a potential bright spot in an otherwise troubling report by the Mortgage Bankers Association.

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