Credit trends under pressure

January data related to Target’s credit card receivables portfolio show an increasing number of consumers are paying their bills slower or not at all. According to data released by the company, nearly 9% of credit customers were more than 30 days delinquent on their payments in January. That is slightly more than December, and well above the average of 5.4% delinquency rate seen in 2007. Charge offs as a percentage of average receivables were slightly more than 12%, up slightly from approximately 11.6% in December and 9.6% in the third quarter.