CHESSNOID

Do you find it odd that banks are paying back TARP, unemployment supposedly went down from 10.3% to 10%, and GDP expanded by 3.5% and yet the credit card delinquency is still rising?  At least for the credit card companies who are not cooking the books and manipulating their numbers.

Reuters: U.S. credit card charge-offs resume climb

Most U.S. credit card companies reported that charge-offs rose in November after two months of declines, showing that consumers remain under stress and sending shares down industry wide.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Citigroup Inc (C.N), the largest issuer of MasterCard-branded credit cards, said charge-offs — loans the company does not expect to be repaid — rose to 10.29 percent in November from 8.79 percent in October.

It was the largest increase among the biggest credit card issuers, but not the only one.

JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), the biggest issuer of Visa-branded credit cards, said charge-offs rose to 8.81 percent from 8.02 percent, and Capital One Financial Corp (COF.N) said its charge-off rate went up to 9.60 percent from 9.04 percent.

Discover Financial Services (DFS.N) said its default rate rose to 8.98 percent from 8.54 percent.

The reports ended a short relief of two months when charge-offs declined, helped by tax refunds and economic stimulus actions.

“American consumers are still hurting, and especially coming into the Christmas season,” said Ken Crawford, senior portfolio manager at Argent Capital Management.

How are some banks able to reduce overall delinquency vs other banks when the unemployment rate applies to all of them? Simply some banks tell a story, while others tell the truth.

I know banks have not increased business or revenues in this economy, nor have they reduced net losses.  I just hope that President Obama and Congress doesn’t bail them out again using taxpayer money when they come back asking for another bailout.  These insolvent banks need to be taken over by the FDIC and  restructured accordingly.