Serious card delinquency eases, and limits grow faster than balances
An annualized 6.87% of card balances moved 90 or more days past due in the third quarter, the lowest rate since early 2024, New York Fed data released Tuesday show.
A smaller share of balances went delinquent
An annualized 6.87% of credit card balances moved into serious delinquency, 90 or more days past due, in the third quarter, the New York Fed reported Nov. 10 12. The rate fell from 6.97% in the second quarter and 7.05% a year earlier 12. That was the lowest since the first quarter of 2024, when it was 6.86% 2.
Early delinquency eased too. An annualized 8.39% of card balances moved 30 or more days past due, down from 8.69% in the second quarter and the lowest since the third quarter of 2023 2. The share of card balances already 90 or more days delinquent was 12.90% at the end of September, little changed from 12.92% at the end of June 2. The series high is 13.74%, set in the second quarter of 2010 2.
Share of credit card balances becoming delinquent
Limits outgrew balances
Credit card balances rose 1.7% in the third quarter to $1.285 trillion, the New York Fed said 12. Balances rose 4.2% from a year earlier 12. Aggregate card limits grew faster, climbing 2.1% in the quarter and 6.5% from a year earlier 2. By our calculation, balances equaled 22.6% of limits at the end of September, down from 23.1% a year earlier 2.
Total household debt rose 1.8% to $19.1 trillion, led by mortgages, though the report said about half of the mortgage gain reflected re-reported balances 12. Home equity line balances grew $23 billion, the largest quarterly increase since 2005 1.
Delinquency rose most in lower-income areas
Card delinquency rose most sharply from 2022 to 2024 among borrowers in lower-income ZIP codes, New York Fed economists found in a Liberty Street Economics post released with the report 3. The gap with higher-income areas has widened since 2022 3. The median credit score at issuance averaged 688 for cards opened in 2020-22, down from 699 for cards opened in 2017-19 3. Those accounts now show higher levels of distress, the economists wrote 3. Median scores on more recently opened cards have climbed back above the pre-pandemic level 3.
Coming up
- Late November Fed charge-off and delinquency rates at commercial banks for the third quarter, based on past timing (the second-quarter update came Aug. 25)
- Around Dec. 7 Fed G.19 consumer credit for October, based on the Fed's usual fifth-business-day timing
About the data
Credit Vitals is built each week from public data: the New York Fed's Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, the Federal Reserve's G.19 consumer credit release and quarterly charge-off and delinquency rates, and Bureau of Labor Statistics releases (pulled through FRED). New York Fed figures come from its Consumer Credit Panel, a sample of anonymized Equifax credit reports, and are not seasonally adjusted; Fed figures are seasonally adjusted where the Fed adjusts them. The New York Fed's delinquency transition rates are annualized: each is the sum of the latest four quarters. Card balances as a share of limits is our calculation from the New York Fed's balance and limit data. The chart data can be downloaded below. Corrections are noted at the end of the page with the date. Download the chart data (CSV).
Sources
- New York Fed, press release: Household Debt Increased Moderately; Delinquency Transition Rates Remain Flat (Nov. 10, 2026)
- New York Fed, Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, Q3 2026, report and underlying data
- Liberty Street Economics, A Look at the Wider Divide in Credit Card Delinquency by Income (Nov. 10, 2026)
- Federal Reserve, G.19 Consumer Credit, September 2026, via FRED (REVOLSL)
- BLS via FRED, Unemployment Rate (UNRATE)
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