The pace of growth in credit card debt picked up in September as Americans added $3 billion in revolving credit compared to $1 billion one-year ago. Since the start of this year, consumers have added more than $19 billion in revolving credit, ending September at $731.5 billion. According to figures released Friday by the Federal Reserve, the annual growth rate for revolving credit is now 5.0%, the highest pace since May. One-year ago the growth rate was 3.0%. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the second quarter was $646.2 billion, or roughly 90% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). (Third quarter industry figures will be available in the next week or two.) At the end of September, Americans were $1972.2 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Sept03 Aug03 Jul 03 Jun03 May03 Apr03 Mar03
GRWTH: 5.0% 2.9 1.4 -2.4 7.7 3.4 4.1
$OWED: $731.5 728.5 726.8 725.9 727.9 722.8 720.7
Feb03 Jan03 Dec02 Nov02 Oct02 Sep02 Aug02
GRWTH: 5.9% 5.2 -6.7 -1.4 1.6 3.0 6.2
$OWED: $718.6 715.5 712.4 716.8 717.9 721.3 719.5
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 11/07/03;
For complete historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com).
