Consumer revolving credit grew again in February as Americans tacked on nearly $5.0 billion in net new debt, mostly credit card debt, compared to the prior month. In January consumers added $5.6 billion. Revolving consumer credit has now reached a record $951.7 billion and is growing by 5.9% per annum. Based on revised figures, revolving debt rose 7.1% in January and 2.8% in December. 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 or roughly 85% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). Store and gas credit cards had about $109 billion in outstandings at year-end 2007. At the end of January, Americans were $2539 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Feb 08 Jan 08 Dec 07 Nov 07 Oct 07 Sep 07
GRWTH: 5.9% 7.1 2.8 12.8 8.7 6.0
$OWED: $951.7 947.0 941.4 939.6 921.8 922.1
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 4/7/08;
For complete historical data, visit CardData (www.carddata.com)
