Credit-card issuers remained busy in March. Reuters, looking at Equifax data from March, reports what many of us already figured. There were fewer card offers being made (a lot less), issuers closed 20 million card accounts, and credit limits fell by some $425 billion. From Reuters:In March, lenders closed 20 million card accounts, sending the total down by 58 million from a July 2008 peak to 380 million.Equifax Inc’s (EFX.N) March Credit Trends Report, drawn from 11 million credit profiles, was provided exclusively to Reuters.4.7 percent of payments on bank-issued credit cards were at least 60 days late in March, an increase of 38.3 percent over last March.The number of credit cards from banks issued in January and February 2009 fell 38 percent from the same period in 2008. Equifax obtains this data after a one-month lag.Credit limits continued to fall as well, by $425 billion from a July peak of $3.59 trillion to $3.16 trillion in March.In addition to the factbox published by Reuters, you can also read the companion story that goes with the credit-card data. Read it here.Reuters also tallied up the most recent homeowner information as well. You can read it here.
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