News Link • Economy - Economics USA

Capital One Credit Card Charge-Offs Increase to 10.41%

02-16-2010 • CalculatedRiskBlog.com

Capital One Financial Corp's 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. Click on graph for larger image in new window. This graph shows the COF annualized credit card charge-off rate since January 2005. Notice the spike in 2005 associated with a surge in bankruptcy filings ahead of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA). Capital One credit card annualized net charge-off rate is now at 10.41% - above the peak in 2005. As Reuters notes, Capital One is usually the first to report monthly credit card charge-offs. The other major credit card issuers will report later today.