Credit Card Delinquencies Increasing
Well, when something stops being in the news we always tend to think the situation resolved itself or has gotten better and is no longer “newsworthy” but that is not the case with a big part of the credit problem here in the US right now. There was a report or reports on how credit card delinquencies and late payments were quite a problem, gosh, maybe almost a year ago, and since it had not been in the news for a while, I thought that this had gotten better, maybe a little more cleaned up, but apparently it hasn’t.
Americans are still over extending themselves via credit cards, no matter what kinds of credit cards they are, airline miles, or whatever, and they are opting to make their payments late or not at all on their credit cards instead of not paying other bills that we all consider more important like utilities and things of the like that would leave us without heat, water, electricity, or a roof over our head (if we don’t pay the mortgage in lieu of paying the credit card bills).
Well, I’m not saying it’s right, but this thought does tend to enter in when we are looking at stacks of bills and we’re not sure what to pay first with the money that we have, which seems to not match up to the money going out the door in those unfortunate months when we run short on the bills.
Credit card delinquencies, as reported by various credit agencies, have apparently almost doubled in this past year, and the worst part is, they say that the worst is still most likely yet to come. We’ve already discussed how I’ve noticed many of my credit card companies are not willing to up credit limits, because they are so wary of people not being able to pay them on time or at all if they are overextending their credit.
This no doubt is hitting credit card companies in the wallet, but this is not unexpected, as many Americans are finding themselves in binds and just getting themselves in deeper through credit card debt, which is notoriously the most destructive of debts if it is abused.
