CHESSNOID

The credit card delinquency rate is usually in line with the unemployment rate according to many economists.  So it seems funny that at last count our national unemployment rate supposedly decreased even though we had more unemployed people.  It would make more sense if they counted everyone like the credit card companies.

Capital One credit card delinquency went up in line with the real unemployment rates.  I guess the difference is if you stop looking for a job, the government doesn’t count you in the rate.  With the credit card company, if you stop paying they count you in the delinquency rate.

Reuters:

* US credit card charge-offs rise to 10.41 pct in Jan

* US credit card delinquencies rise to 5.80 pct in Jan

Feb 16 (Reuters) – Capital One Financial Corp’s (COF.N: Quote, Profile,Research) U.S. credit-card defaults rose in January, in a sign that consumers continue to remain under stress, it said in a regulatory filing.

Capital One said the annualized net charge-off rate — debts the company believes it will never collect — for U.S. credit cards rose to 10.41 percent in January from 10.14 percent in December.

Accounts at least 30 days delinquent — an indicator of future loan losses — were up marginally to 5.80 percent from 5.78 percent.

Capital One is the third-largest U.S. issuer of Visa (V.N: Quote, Profile,Research) branded credit cards, and the fifth-largest issuer of MasterCard (MA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) branded credit cards.

For U.S. auto loans, Capital One’s charge-off rate was 4.27 percent in January, down from 5.68 percent in December, and the delinquency rate fell to 9.61 percent from 10.03 percent.

In credit card international operations, including Canada and Britain, the charge-off rate fell to 9.03 percent from 9.58 percent, while the delinquency rate rose to 6.66 percent from 6.55 percent.

Capital One routinely kicks off the monthly reporting of credit card charge-offs. JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), Citigroup Inc (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research), American Express Co (AXP.N: Quote,Profile, Research) and Discover Financial Services (DFS.N: Quote, Profile,Research) are expected to report the monthly performance of their credit card portfolios on Tuesday.

Capital One shares closed at $35.14 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)