Recent report by TransUnion shows rise in debt and delinquency…

A 2008 third quarter report released by TransUnion provides an analysis of trends in the lending industry focusing on credit card, auto loan and mortgage data. TransUnion’s Trend Data is a one of a kind database consisting of 27 million anonymous consumer records with more than 200 credit variables that illustrate credit usage and performance over time. The quarterly report is based on a random sample from this national consumer credit database and features statistics from county, state and national levels.

Results of this report show:

• Consumer debt rose nationally by 1.57% to $5,710 from the previous quarter; 6% from one year ago. Alaska has the highest average debt of $7,827 of any state, followed by Nevada and Tennessee.
• Iowa has the lowest average debt of $4,277, followed by N. Dakota and W. Virginia.
• Maine experienced the largest drop in average credit card debt of -1.4%, followed by N. Dakota and Alaska.
• National ratios for delinquent borrowers increased by 1.09%, up 4.8% from the previous quarter and up 5.8% from a year ago. The highest state delinquency rate was in Nevada, followed by Florida and Mississippi.

Ezra Becker, principal consultant in TransUnion’s financial services group, said, “Although financial institutions have been undertaking proactive measures to mitigate risk in their portfolios, the continued deterioration in the financial and labor markets is having a negative impact on the ability of consumers to repay their debt obligations. Those consumers with high mortgage debt may opt to utilize whatever cash reserves are available to keep their houses rather than pay off any debt on the credit card obligations. In addition, the third quarter of 2008 saw a drop in the nation’s disposable income per capita and an increase in unemployment, putting additional burden on the consumer’s ability to repay credit card debt. However, the significant drop in energy prices that accelerated in September may have mitigated the increase in delinquency,” added Becker.

* To learn more, see TransUnion’s Quarterly Credit Analysis>

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 and is filed under: Credit News. Follow through RSS 2.0 Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.