Household Debt in the United States has increased 53% in the past 10 years and consumers are becoming less optimistic about their financial futures. There are 53 banks that saw their consumer loan portfolios grow at least 2.5% during the…
Category: Consumer Debt
How Consumers are Coping with Higher Rates
What a difference a year makes, both in attitudes and in numbers. TransUnion®’s Second Quarter 2023 Consumer Pulse Study reports that 57% of Americans are optimistic when it comes to their household finances over the next year. That number, however,…
Non-Housing Debt Up $24 Billion in Q1’23
Credit card balances generally drop during the first quarter as consumers pay down what they spent during the holidays. But not this year. According to The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, credit…
What is in Your Wallet Can Cost a Small Fortune
According to WalletHub, the average credit card rate for new offers is now over 21%. Store Card rates are trending even higher, with some as high as 30%! Yet, after paying down credit cards during the worst of COVID, consumers…
Control Your Debt Before It Controls You
As we watch with contentment as CD rates continue to rise, we know there is also an unmistakable down-side to the Federal Reserve’s persistent rate increases. If it hasn’t already, it will soon be making its debut in a wallet…
U.S. Consumers May be Nearing a Tipping Point
Coral Gables, Florida, September 21, 2022: BauerFinancial, Inc., the nation’s premier Bank and Credit Union rating firm, sheds light on the fact that early-stage consumer delinquencies are beginning to head up. While the more severe delinquent loans are holding at…
The (Mortgage Refinancing) Party is Over
With a 1.5% increase in short-term interest rates in a three month period, the mortgage refinancing party is effectively over. Yet, total household debt (including mortgage loans) increased by $266 billion in the first quarter 2022. Balances, now at $15.84…
Can Consumer Loans Withstand Rate Rises?
We had hoped to have credit union data and star-ratings available this week, but the NCUA made so many changes to the reporting this quarter, the data didn’t come out until Tuesday (June 7th). So while our analysts comb over…
What Constitutes an Unconscionable Interest Rate?
After last week’s article on banks with high service fee income, we wanted to take a look at how some other banks make their money. Particularly after mentioning that Capital One is a credit card bank, we wanted to see…
Credit Card Debt Lessens as Quality Improves
It’s nice to have something positive to report. U.S. banks have been reporting a steep decline in credit card usage since the end of 2019 (see below). Not only that, but as you will see, the quality of those credit…